Jayce just stared at the two ponies in front of him, how could they ask what Pokémon were? Turning back to Nao he’d stutter but no words would come out. Now he could forgive not knowing what a Meowstic was since they weren’t super common nor were they in every region, and that could be what this was but something deep down told him that wasn’t the case. Finally he would turn his head back to Grace, the more sane of the two ponies. “Does the word Pokémon mean anything to you?”
She had to think about it! The look on her face said that Grace was thinking about the question pretty hard, it was that point between headache and ‘my eyes are going to pop’. After what seemed like hours she looked down to Jayce and shook her head. “I’ve never heard of that, is that what you are?” That couldn’t be right though, these two were cats while those things in the forest hadn’t been anything other than a chandelier and a Nightmare Night witch’s hat. Jayce, she thought, looked like he was about to have a heart attack or something of that nature while Nao simply looked like Nao.
“Before Jayce has a heart attack I would like to ask, where are we?” They might have just been in a region where Pokémon weren’t as common, not that she’d ever heard of such a place but anything was possible. Well in a world with Pokémon who could control the elements and even time itself, anything really was possible.
Rock popped up to answer the question. “Oh I know that one, you’re in the forest.” Not necessarily a smart answer. The looks he got from his three companions had him back peddling to hide behind the nearest rock, it just happened to be Geodude.
“Dude.” It seemed the rock Pokémon was starting to come around himself.
Shaking his head Rocky ducked down. “I know right.”
“Geo geo dude.” It appeared that Rocky and Geodude were having a conversation; that would have been amazingly unbelievable had it actually been the case.
“I know my answer was the right one, they just didn’t like it.” Rocky was really having a conversation with himself, only using Geodude to validate anything he was saying or thinking at the time. “Only you understand my plight Little Dude.” Finally a friend who thought he was smart!
In reality Geodude had been asking questions of his own, such as why are you hiding and why was he hiding behind him. Geodude wasn’t a large Pokémon by any means and in this case Rocky wasn’t hidden at all by his stone friend.
Shaking her head Grace would pull off her saddle bags and start digging through them, looking for a length of map she’d packed that morning. “He wasn’t completely wrong; you’re in the forest surrounding Hollow Shades..aha.” She would produce the map; it actually looked fairly recent since the edges weren’t frayed or yellowing. “Now we are…here.” Poking a hoof at the spot they were in showed they weren’t that far from town actually which meant a place to take refuge for the night. If the residents didn’t run them out of town for what had happened.
The map however had Jayce’s eyes wide, the dark green pupils dilating to a point that it looked painful. “Nao that’s not Kanto! Where on Earth are we?” Very quickly he looked around the edges of the map, hoping to perhaps see a region he knew or even heard about. Sadly that wouldn’t be the case; there was something about zebra and griffon but nothing about Johto, Kanto, Hoenn, or even Kalos.
“Earth? I don’t know where that is but you’re in Equestria” That wasn’t hard to tell though as Equestria was scribbled across the top of the map in fancy looking lettering. Below that the word Equus was stenciled in somewhat bold letters that were no less fancy.
“Nao…Nao…Nao.” He called her name repeatedly as he pointed to Equus, if the mare didn’t know what Earth was then that clearly meant they weren’t there. If they weren’t on Earth then they were on another planet and these ponies were…the indigenous race which meant… “That means-“
“I know what it means Jayce.” Nao would cut him off as politely as she could, trying to keep him from panicking any further. Turning to the mare who seemed grounded, as in not panicking either, Nao would calmly explain. “It seems we’re on another planet entirely.” That brought on a whole new line of thought, like how they got there and other various questions of equal importance.
Grace shook her head in disbelief, even though the things she’d seen in this forest this morning were clearly not of Equestria.
“Does that mean you’re-“
A loud crash from the general direction Rocky was hiding caught the trio’s attention. Turning they would find that Rocky had once again passed out and the Geodude was busily fanning his face. “Dude geo geodude geo.”
Both Nao and Jayce had to facepaw at what the Geodude had said though it was Nao who spoke first. “Seems space alien ghosts were just a bit too much for him, can we leave him like that for a bit?” She tilted her head to the side at the last bit, some silence from that area would make things go a lot smoother.
With a sigh the mare would have to nod in agreement. “Yeah…I…If you’re aliens then I don’t know if I should be talking to you, there has to be some official way of communication or something?” Grace’s mind was going a mile a minute, what if she would be sent to jail for this? It certainly seemed like a possibility with how dangerous these creatures were. “And I need to get these folk back to town, who knows how many more of those...Pokémon?..are still out here.” Looking around there were at least ten townsfolk with the addition of two foals.
“We can help with that.” Jayce was quick to offer his help in this situation, friendship could go far.
Nao however bopped him on the head again causing Jayce to shudder. “I can help them if we must, but not you Jayce. You just evolved and don’t know how to control your abilities yet.” Keeping the next bit between just the two of them she would add. “Remember what I did to Jenny’s bike? I don’t want you doing that to them even on accident.”
Jayce took a step back, his eyes going to pin pricks as he realized what could happen. A Meowstic could easily crush a ten ton truck with the power stored in their ears, what could have happened to these ponies had he recklessly tried to pick them up? “I…” He wasn’t left alone long, Nao scooted back to put her arms around him in a soothing way, her tail would loop back to wrap around his own.
Worry etched on Grace’s face when she saw Jayce’s reaction to what was said. “What’s evolving? That glowy thing you did?”
“Yes, but we can talk more about that later.” Nao said as she turned to look over the townsfolk. “But you’re right we should try to get out of here, I doubt those are the only Pokémon here that are confused and they aren’t even the meanest.” There weren’t that many ponies so floating them in psychic wouldn’t be too hard, but the translation thing would have to stop since it was draining. “I can carry them but talking like this isn’t going to happen while I’m doing it, this little bit is already making me tired.”
Actually that didn’t sound like a bad idea, it would get the townsfolk back and make the pokemon seem like the helped. At least it would possibly help them stay in town for a little while until everything was figured out, it also gave Grace the time to be alone in her head. “Alright, we’re only a few miles from town. Once we get there though don’t…talk in anyone else’s head…Hollow Shades is a bit of a superstitious town.”
With a plan set the group started getting to work, while Nao could grab everyone from where they were she had decided it best to round them up, possibly only floating the larger ponies and setting the smaller ones on their backs. The end result was four piles of ponies with Rocky having a stallion on his back with the two foals on that stallion’s back. Once they were settled Nao sat on Grace’s back so she wouldn’t have to waste energy on walking, but this left Jayce to walk which he was perfectly fine with.
“I need to work on my abilities.” Jayce was muttering to himself after the walk began, the pace would have to be slow so he could keep up and so that bumps wouldn’t knock Nao around. This also helped the Geodude keep, who seemed to be bent on following Rocky wherever he went. Seemed that even in this strange situation friendships could bloom and this one was literally friendship at first rock.
The best part of this was Nao couldn’t tell him to stop moping or muttering since she had to focus on the task at hand. Generally he did everything in his power to make Nao happy, he loved her more than anything but sometimes it just felt good to mope. Now if he could remember the pokedex entry correctly it had said something about the genders of Meowstic, but what was it. Frustration etched itself on Jayce’s face; it was going to bug the hell out of him until he figured it out.
“Male Meowstics what…” His eyes would shift to Nao, who was doing her best to focus on floating the ponies. She was strong and definitely a powerhouse when it came to attacking psychically which gave her an edge in double and triple battles. Then he thought back to what he was doing before he’d evolved, protecting the innocent and willing to take damage. “Aha!” Slamming one paw into the other he figured it out; male Meowstics were really good at supporting as their natural move set involved a lot of abilities like protect and quick guard. With a bit of a grin he’d reach up and tug at his ears for a moment. “Alright are you going to work with me? It’s either with me or against me and we work as a team on this body.” It seemed Jayce was giving himself a pep talk, yay for him.
Giving a slight bounce of excitement Jayce began to choose a move he wanted to try, though it really wasn’t a choice. Raising his hands up above his head he would start to clap in tune with the hoof falls of Grace. “Helping Hand.” After a moment of walking he would start to sing. “I can clap if I want to, we can help each other, but if you don’t clap then I’ll just clap alone Hey!” It was a cheesy song and he knew it but dang it if it didn’t make him feel better. Inside he could feel energy surging up and his ears would lift just a smidge as he tried to channel it.
Looking up from the back of Grace Nao frowned for a moment. “Jayce you know you can’t…” Listening to the clapping though seemed to invigorate her; she could feel the energy coming from Jayce. “I guess you can use helping hand…” For a moment she’d forgotten Jayce had become a Pokémon since only he could sing so badly, well lyrically anyway. “Thank you.”
Grace didn’t know what was going on though, the assumption was that Jayce was suddenly happy instead of sad and that she could live with. Behind her floated the towns folk and the pace was going to double how long it took her to get out here in the first place. “Hey Jayce are you alright?” She would turn her head back to look at the Meowstic, the clapping certainly had a tempo and as a pony she found it hard not to sing.
A smile crossed Jayce’s face as he gave a firm nod, indeed he could do helping hand. That above all else at this very moment amused him the most, after all he’d spent a good number of years pretending to do helping hand. Irony was not lost on him. “Don’t you think its funny the first skill I use as a Meowstic is helping hand Nao?” Picking up the pace he’d try to get to an even pace with Grace, instead of going too slow or too fast. “I mean-“
“Jayce I’m trying to float a thousand or so pounds of pony without crushing them.” Her eyes was focused on the townsfolk, some of them were beginning to wake up though they remained still out of fear. After all they’d just spent a few hours wandering aimlessly without a thought in their heads.
Slinking back Jayce would nod, the excitement was still there even after being told to be quiet. “And then there was one and his name was Jayce and he was the most helpful Meowstic ever.” His paws continued to clap along but now it was more to his own beat rather than Grace’s hooves. “I want to shake my tail and dance along.” For now Jayce would be in his own little world, which was fine for a time.
Hollow Shades was quiet by the time they arrived and the sun wasn’t quite high in the sky yet so many of the buildings were putting off shadows. These shadows added to the towns over all quiet and spooky vibe, buildings were made of wood with thatch and tiled roves spread throughout town. Outside there wasn’t a single pony to be seen and the sounds of shutters closing on approach could be heard, the sound being almost depressing.
“We’re getting into town now so I think a few guidelines need to put up I think.” Trying hard not to use the word rules Grace spoke quietly. “The townsfolk in Hollow Shades are a bit more superstitious compared to the average pony; it took years to get a train station put in because some of the elderly were afraid it would bring in ruffians, omens, and so on. You should probably stay close to me and maybe rock if he doesn’t pass out again, that should keep the pony from freaking out.” More so anyway, at least it seemed like more of the Pokémon hadn’t come into town yet. “Would you mind carrying them a bit further, we have a little clinic in town and I’d like them to come to with a helping hoof.”
With a nod from Nao and a paws up from Jayce they walked through town towards the clinic. The layout was pretty simple, few roads meant little confusion and quick travel times. Arriving at the clinic they were met with a colorful sight, not the building of course it was a few shades of brown and green with a red cross on the door, but rather who was there. A Blissey had managed to find its way to the clinic and was standing outside looking somewhat offended. Upon arrival the pink and white Pokémon turned around, its eyes going wide at the sight of other Pokémon.
“Hey look it’s a Blissey!” Jayce shouted as he pointed a bit too dramatically. At the exclamation Nao had to put the ponies down so she too could take a look at the nurse Pokémon.
The Blissey walked towards the group, its footsteps making it seem like she was bouncing along the ground a fair bit. “Oh thank goodness other Pokémon, please please one of you be human.” The Blissey’s eyes went from surprised to hopeful with a hint of pleading, it seemed this was another human turned pokemon.
“Sweet another human, we almost have enough members for a club!” Jayce ran forward he took the Blissey’s hand, paw, thingy, and gave it a shake. “And from your voice you’re Joy aren’t you?” It was somewhat rude to refer to a Nurse Joy as ‘a Joy’, Jayce had learned that a few regions back.
Nao shook her head as she walked forward, Jayce it seemed couldn’t be brought down for longer than a few minutes. “So Jayce isn’t the only one.” Standing next to Jayce she would weave her tail with his just so the Nurse Joy would know where they stood. After all some Joys were for Pokémon and human relationships while others were so against it they would keep a Pokémon held and restrain the trainer. Turning back she hear Grace do one of those fake coughs, the kind that are meant to get attention. “Hold on let me translate…” Raising her ears she would channel some energy into them, tapping into Grace’s mind so she could understand. “There.”
There was a grateful nod from Grace as she walked to the door and rapped on it. “Doctor Fields?” With a glare at the door she proceeded to increase how hard she was knocking on the door, and it was knocking at this point. “Doctor Fields unlock this door! We’ve got the missing pony and they need to be looked at!” It would take a few more thuds before the wise doctor finally opened the door.
“You did? That’s good…” Poking his head out, he was a smaller brown stallion with a reddish mane with a thread and needle cutie mark. “Is the pink thing gone, it’s not done nothing but ah don’t trust it.” Looking past the town’s mayor he saw that not only was it not gone but there were more creatures. “Get them to go away and ah’ll look at the injured.”
“He doesn’t realize we can understand him does he?” Saying as he nonchalantly leaned against Nao, Jayce had hoped it might get a startle out of the pony. Now he wasn’t all about scaring ponies or hurting anyone, far from it actually, but he hated when people or ponies judged others without knowing them. “Or that she’s a nurse? Probably didn’t bother to ask or anything.”
“Probably not, he’ll learn soon enough.” Nao added, her red eyes now looking at the doctor.
Needless to say the good doctor looked faint when he heard voices suddenly in his head. “They’re in my head, oh goddesses they want my brain.” Fields hit the deck like it was his day job, hooves quickly over his head in a protective way.
Grace looked back at the Pokémon; Jayce was whistling innocently, Nao didn’t seem like she cared, and Nurse Joy seemed a bit confused. “No they’re not Doctor, it’s the only way we can understand them.” Reaching down she’d gently take him by the hoof and pull. “And those two cuties helped save the missing ponies.”
“Only after you bribed them I bet.” Not quite ready to give up the fight, he quite liked being stuck in his ways.
With a smile and a bit of an eye twitch Grace would pull on the doctor again, this time pulling him to his hooves. “Not at all, they insisted on helping, and now I think the pink one is willing to help as well.” With mention of ‘pink one’ Nurse Joy stepped forward while trying to look unthreatening. “So why don’t you get over there and try to make nice? After all you could use all the help you can get, there’s foals who haven’t woken and those who seem to be coming too aren’t moving much either.” She would purposely point the doctor at Rocky, who was still quietly passed out on the ground. “Don’t help him, I’m pretty sure he’s beyond help.”
That actually got a bit of a chuckle out of the doctor even if it was nervous. “Ain’t been right since his momma dropped him, poor guy…” His eyes would go from Rocky to the Pokémon who were waiting for word. “Fine, Celestia knows I was taught love and tolerance “ With a grunt he would walk towards the downed ponies, muttering under his breath until he was closer. “Uh..Nurse…never had one of them before…just if I ask for help be ready, some of the foals might need hold’n and you look soft enough.”
To her credit Joy took that as a compliment, she wasn’t expecting much of one anyway with how the pony had been acting. “Would you two mind explaining what’s going on once they’re helped?”
“Well I can tell you what we know right now, but yeah probably best not to talk about yet.” Jayce said as he glanced up, he wasn’t a doctor and was pretty certain he had no moves to help with healing. “It’s not even noon yet and this day feels like it’s been going forever.”
Nao nodded her head but didn’t say anything, being this close to Jayce was enough to keep her placated for now even if it was meant to keep the Nurse Joy at bay.
__________________________________________________________________________________
An hour would pass by as pony after pony was roused from their catatonic state, some hadn’t been unconscious but scared stiff and need proper prodding to move along. Some had needed to be taken inside to be looked at a bit closer but even those woke up with a little bit of time. As for the foals it had been more of a bad dream for them and waking up to an incredibly round and fluffy new thing had them running around in circles laughing and giggling. The scene would have been adorable had they not caught sight of the two cats nearby, they were instantly the center of attention.
Nao had very quickly escaped the situation by climbing on to Grace’s back, thus leaving Jayce to be tugged and pulled. In turn he resigned to being the foals’ play thing. It didn’t seem like he minded all that much, back on Earth he had always loved children since they were easy to get along with. In time parents arrived to pick up their foals were quickly whisked away and the ponies who had vanished departed the clinic. Throughout the most serious of injures was sustained by Rocky which was a bump on his head from passing out, repeatedly.
“Well ah reckon that went better than I expected it to, can’t blame them for wanting to get away from the little critters. Over the last hour the doctor had been having idle chit chat with Nurse Joy, who he actually found quite intelligent in the field of medicine. “It’s uh been nice chatting with you Miss Joy, sorry about yelling at you earlier but ah gotta get back to work.” Because Rocky still wasn’t awake and that was somewhat of a blessing to the group.
“So where do we go from here? I’d rather not go back to the forest right now.” Jayce managed to get out just before yawning, he was exhausted after an hour of play.
Walking past the Pokémon Grace motioned to one of the larger houses in town. “That’s my family’s house, I’m the only one staying there right now.” Jayce raised his head to ask a question but was quickly cut off. “Mom and Dad went out of town, once the railroad went in they decided to travel for a bit. Come on let’s get you inside before any pony else decides to start poking around.”
“I’m going to cut the connection now…I’m getting tired.” There wasn’t much of a warning before the connection cut out and Nao passing out from exertion.
Jayce moved fast enough to catch Nao as she fell from Grace’s back, catching being he used his body as a cushion. “Ow.” And now he was under her, normally this situation would be a bit more enjoyable but as it was it simply sucked. “Some help please…” Getting her off wouldn’t be too hard, they were the same size now and roughly the same weight, he just didn’t want to hurt her.
Nurse Joy was there a moment after the fall; she had managed to procure a few medical supplies from Doctor Fields. After a rather quick inspection she was able to come up with a diagnosis, it was easy really since she had been helping Pokémon for years.
“She’s just exhausted herself; with some rest she’ll be just fine.” She even ran a paw over Jayce just to make sure he had no injuries from the fall either, thankfully he was soft.
“She never was one to let others know when she was tired.” Or in over her head, Nao was a bit proud and really hard headed when it came to relying on anyone that wasn’t Jayce. Joy had no problem picking up Nao then placing her back on Grace’s back. “And now Grace can’t understand us, which mean we can’t ask questions until Nao wakes up.” Running around he would have to wave for Grace to continue on.
Nurse Joy followed alongside Grace, paw on Nao the entire way to Grace’s home. “Can you use the same ability she was?”
Shaking his head Jayce let out a sigh. “I’m just like you Nurse Joy, there are only a few things I can do if I think about it.” The fight before had been mostly by instinct and gut feeling meaning he had no idea how to really do those skills again. “I’ll have to have her teach me do it, else I could end up scrambling their brains or something.” Looking over to the Blissey who hadn’t done a single skill since they’d met he would add. “And I would rather avoid that…Nurse Joy what region are you from?”
Joy didn’t like the idea of having him try anymore nor was she quite thrilled that Nao was doing if that was a possible result. “I ran the Pokécenter in Viridian City before this happened.” She puffed up a bit as if she was proud of it, it was after all one of the larger centers in the region and took a great number of Chansey to run the facility. “Speaking of do you know where we even are? It’s not Kanto I know that and I’m pretty sure we’re not in Johto either; I treat Pokémon from that area occasionally.”
“Mind if I tell you once we’re inside? You’re going to want a place to rest.” Or freak out, he’d almost done just that but had smoothly kept himself from doing so.
Grace could tell they were having a conversation but she’d be darned that she couldn’t tell what they were talking about. As it was she was distracted by their voices, there was something cute about the way both Pokémon sounded. “Well we’re about there.”
The house seemed pretty old this close up but they could also tell that work was done on a regular basis; a ladder with a few tools around it spoke of that. The paint was a dark blue and the trimming along the windows and doors was a dirty looking white, a mat out front said welcome. All in all it was a nice place to rest for a bit and maybe stay a bit longer if allowed or needed.
Moving up to the door Grace would open it, it appeared that she was one of those who didn’t lock their door when they were going out or going into life threatening situations where survival isn’t guaranteed. “Welcome to my home, I apologize if it’s a bit messy we’re in middle of doing a little remodeling.” She would enter first as to light candles and lanterns that hung throughout the foyer. In the middle of the room was a table which held a few books, a few cushions that looked well used, a few shelves here and there, and what looked like a tea set which joined the books on the table. “I also…alright I’m not the most tidy pony but at least there’s more than enough room for you all.”
Nao was transferred to one of the less used pillows where Jayce promptly took his spot right next to her, almost in a protective way.
Finally out of the public view and somewhat alone Nurse Joy took this moment to ask the same question she’d asked earlier. “Jayce where are we?” She had taken a seat on the far end of this square table, which sat her oh rough five feet away.
“Um well…” He reached up to scratch his ear hoping to delay his answer, maybe Nao would wake up and save him from this? Jayce continued to scratch his ear for a minute before the impatient look from Joy made him speak. “This isn’t going to be easy…but we’re on a new world…” He immediately cringed as the words left his mouth, hopefully her reaction would be better this his own had been?
Joy leaned forward so that her ear was forward. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear you right, it sounded like you said we’re on a new world.”
“That’s because I did.”
Leaning back she would simply answer. “Oh my, that’s what I feared.” Nurse Joy quietly took this moment to introduce herself to the table then the cushion as she too passed out, though from shock rather than exertion.
Jayce looked between Nao and Joy and smiled. “And then there was one.”