The sun was slowly rising over Canterlot, in a beautiful sunrise. The sky turned orange, the birds sang…
And Princess Luna was going to sleep.
“Mornin’, Tia.” Luna said as she passed her sister on the way to her bedchambers. She had bags under her eyes, and her mane had a few stray strands sticking out.
“Have a good day’s sleep, Lu-lu.” Celestia said, kissing her sister on the cheek. “How was last night’s work?”
“Eh, the usual.” Luna grunted in a most un-princess-like manner. While the two may have been regal in public, they were comfortable enough around each other to act like normal ponies.
Luna rounded the corner as her sister began to talk to a guard (something about a stray dog on the palace grounds) and walked down the corridor leading to her bedchambers. She finally reached the massive, dark blue door, emblazoned with two silver moons. She pushed it open unceremoniously, and entered her room.
Flopping down on her four-poster bed, she sighed. She turned her head, and saw her pet opossum, Tiberius, on her nightstand. “Have a nice nap, little one.” She said, scratching the possum behind his ear. He cooed with appreciation. Then Luna closed her eyes, and entered her domain.
XXXXXXXX
“Good evening, secretary snugglekins.” Luna said, walking past the front desk of her office.
“G’day, Luna.” The giant teddy bear said happily. He was typing at his keyboard with arms way too big for the keys.
Luna entered her office. Smiling, she sat at the desk. “Bring in the first sample!” She called.
A small bat arrived, carrying a plate of cake. Luna licked her lips. “Will there be anything else, Mrs Cake Tester, ma’am?” the bat asked.
“No, that will be all for now, thank you.” Luna said, waving the bat away.
Luna sighed with ecstasy as she bit into the cake; she loved the “official cake tester” dream. Being the mistress of dreams, she could control her sleeping experiences with impeccable accuracy. Her dreams varied according to her command; sometimes she was playing a video game tournament, other times she was snuggling with some cute stallion.
As Luna was about to finish off the cake, something odd happened. Her fork passed through the cake, like it was an illusion. “What?” Luna muttered; she stabbed the cake a few more times, but it refused to be stuck on the fork. She even leaned down to eat it with her mouth, but it was like trying to eat air.
Then, suddenly, Luna fell through her chair, phasing through it as if she were a ghost. Then she phased through the floor itself.
Luna began to fall endlessly through a pitch-black void. Her wings refused to budge an inch.
Normally, Luna could see impeccably in the dark, being princess of the night. This darkness, though, was impossible to pierce, no matter how hard Luna tried. This… wasn’t natural. She commanded the dream to go back to the cake testing, but for the first time she couldn’t remember, she wasn’t in control of the dream.
She was afraid.
Eventually, Luna felt her fall slowing, until she was sort of hovering in midair. She wasn’t using her wings; she had simply stopped falling. She looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.
“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt your dream.” Came a low, deep voice. “It looked quite… delicious.”
“What… who are you? WHAT are you?” Luna asked, twirling around, looking for the speaker, but the voice seemed to come from everywhere.
Then, right in front of her, the darkness began to shift, like ripples in a pond. The ripples grew, and converged, and solidified, until eventually, a figure began to form. A large blue spot appeared, followed by a trail of steam. Then an entire body became visible.
The creature was unlike anything Luna had ever seen before. It appeared to almost be wearing some sort of black dress. Long trails of smoke poured from each of the shoulders. The lower part of the dress ended around the knees, but Luna couldn’t make out any legs beneath that, so the creature appeared to just be hovering in the air. The arms below the shoulders were simple: pure black, with claws that had two fingers and a thumb.
The thing’s head… well, there wasn’t really a head. A trail of white steam poured from where the hair might be, but where the face should be, there was only a blue circle; some sort of eye? Luna couldn’t make out anything connecting the steam, the eye, and the red ring of spikes around the creature’s neck, but they all moved as though they were in one piece.
“My humble greetings, your majesty.” The being’s voice was deep and menacing, but also very polite. “I am Darkrai, god of nightmares.” It bowed and placed a hand to its chest, then straightened back up.
“What – what are you? Why are you here?” Luna asked Darkrai in a slightly stuttering voice.
“I am what is known as a Pokemon. I’d explain more about what a Pokemon is, but… you’ll find out soon enough. As for why I am here…” Darkrai’s eye darkened. “I come with a warning, princess.
“Even as I speak, thousands, if not millions of other Pokemon, are appearing all over your country. Many are harmless, but more than a few are quite troublesome. They are being summoned here by a being whose name I dare not speak; all Pokemon fear him immensely, even powerful ones such as I.”
“So… so what do we do? How do we stop this malevolent being? How do we stop this… invasion?” Luna said to Darkrai, struggling to find the words to articulate her thoughts.
“I do not know.” Darkrai said. “However, I know that the key to solving it all, lies in these ones.” Darkrai drew outlines of six cutie marks in the air. “I trust you recognize these.”
“Why – why yes, those belong to the bearers of harmony. But… they no longer have the elements; how can they help?” Luna asked.
Darkrai made a gesture that might have been a shrug if he had true shoulders. “As I said, I do not know. However, I do know that these six are the key to all this.”
“But… but how do you know all this?” Luna questioned.
Darkrai was about to answer, but he rapidly turned. “It is too late. I have no more time. He has found us; he comes. Find these six ‘bearers’, Princess Luna. I will be watching.”
“No, wait!” Luna said, but Darkrai had melted back into the darkness. At the same time, a pink-purple light bloomed in the distance, enveloping Luna, blinding her…
XXXXXXXX
Luna jolted up in bed. She was covered in sweat, and breathing heavily.
“What the hell was that…” Luna whispered to herself.
A knock at the door. “Princess, sorry to – oh good, you’re awake.” A solar guard stepped into the room. “Princess Celestia requests your immediate presence in the throne room.”
“Yes… yes, I’m coming.” Luna said, shaking her head, but she couldn’t get the round blue eye out of her mind. She followed the Solar guard to the throne room.
XXXXXXXX
Twenty minutes earlier…
XXXXXXXX
“Princess Celestia?” The guard said to Celestia. “Sorry to bother you, but there’s an issue in the front gardens.”
“What is it?” Celestia asked.
“A dog, your highness. The guards cannot catch it.” The guard responded.
“Well, then use magic to capture it.” Said Celestia.
“We’ve tried, your majesty; it just sort of…. Slips out of the magic field.” The solar guard said.
Celestria raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. Lead me to it.”
Before long, Celestia and the guard had reached the front lawn. Sure enough, several guards were chasing a dog covered in long, shaggy white hair.
“Hangon!” A unicorn guard called as he put up a magic field around the dog. This only stopped the canine for a moment, though: he suddenly slipped through the field like a greased weasel. “It keeps happening!” The guard wailed as the dog continued its flight.
Then the dog saw Princess Celestia. “Furf! Furf!” It cried, bounding towards her. The guards made to intercept it, but Celestia waved at them to stand down.
The dog pulled up short at Celestia’s hooves, and panted, sitting on its haunches. “Hello, there, little fellow.” Celestia said, smiling and rubbing the dog’s shaggy head. Now that she could see closer, she could see a black snout and two eyes peeking out of the mass of hair.
“Furfrou!” The dog barked. Then it twisted its neck and nosed around in its fur. Finding something, it looked back at Celestia, now with some sort of blue machine in its mouth.
“What’s this then?” Celestia asked, peering closer at the blue device. Suddenly, a voice rang out, tinny but clear.
“Hello! Hello? Can you hear me?”
Celestia looked surprised, but she said, “Yes, I can hear you.”
“Ah, perfect! I take it you are the monarch of this land, then?” The voice continued. “We would like to request permission to speak with you.”
“Well, of course! Everypony’s allowed to speak to me.” Celestia replied, smiling.
“Well, your majesty… we aren’t exactly ponies.” Said the voice. “That’s why we sent this messenger: so that you wouldn’t attack us when we land.”
“Land?” Celestia thought to herself, but said “Have no fear; you may land safely, as long as you do no harm.”
“We wouldn’t dream of it, your majesty. We’ll arrive shortly.” Said the voice, and the speaker cut off. The dog dropped the communicator and started nuzzling Celestia’s foreleg.
Celestia smiled at the dog, not moving. She looked to the nearest guard. “Tell Captain Armor to place all Canterlot guards on high alert. I’m still not entirely sure this isn’t a surprise attack of some sort. Tell him it’s a code bluejay; he’ll understand.”
“Yes, ma’am!” The guard said, rushing off. Celestia turned to the rest of the guards in the courtyard. “All pegasi, give us some bird-eye views; I think they’ll be coming by air. Everyone else, ready weapons. I’m not taking any chances.” The guards saluted, and rushed off to their respective duties.
Celestia looked back down at the dog, still nuzzling her leg. “I can’t help but have a bad feeling about this.” She mumbled.
XXXXXXXX
“Your highness!”
Celestia looked up; she’d been anxiously waiting in the throne room for the past ten minutes now. A guard rushed in.
“They have arrived.” The guard said simply.
Celestia nodded. “Are they actively hostile?”
“No, your majesty.”
“Then they may enter; with armed guard, of course.” Celestia ordered. The guard saluted, and raced off.
“You.” Celestia said, referring to a guard off to the side of the throne room. “Wake my sister and bring her here; tell her it’s urgent.”
“Yes, Princess.” The guard said, rushing off. Celestia sighed, straigtening her posture. First impressions were always important.
“Well now. We finally meet, Princess.” Celestia looked up, expecting a regal pony, perhaps with an armed guard.
Instead, only an old man with white hair stood in the doorway.
Celestia blinked. “You’re… you’re a-“
“A human, yes.” The man said. He walked into the room with a slight limp; he wore a white lab coat. “I know we may be the stuff of fairytales to your people, your highness, but to be frank, we preferred it that way.”
Celestia’s head was spinning with questions, but she managed to maintain her regal atmosphere. “What are you doing here, human? And what do you mean, ‘we meet at last’? I’m confident I’ve never seen you before.”
The old man smiled. “Of course you haven’t seen us before, princess. We’ve seen you, however.”
Celestia raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean?” She questioned.
The old man made as if to answer, but then there was a yawn. The two turned to see Princess Luna enter through a side door. “Sister, I just had the strangest-“ She paused, seeing the new arrival. “dream.”
“Ah, I take it she’s of some blood relation to you, princess?” The old man asked.
“Sister.” Celestia said, her eyes narrowing; this human knew too much about her for comfort. She maintained a polite tone, though: “How again do you know us?”
The old man took a deep breath, exhaling through his nostrils. “Well, the thing is, Princess… It could take a while to answer that question.”
“We have time.” Celestia said patiently, as her sister sat on the slightly smaller throne next to her.
“Well, then.” The old man cleared his throat. “I suppose we should start with introductions. My name is Professor Oak. What’s your name?”
“I am Celestia, and this is Luna.” Celestia said, gesturing to her sister who gave a sleepy wave.
“Celestia… an ornate, regal name. Fitting.” Professor Oak said. Celestia blushed lightly under her fur. “Princess, there’s no easy way to put this…” he scratched his head. “Do you have a global map I could borrow?”
Celestia nodded to a guard at the side of the room; he ran off and returned a few seconds later with a map. “Here you are. What do you need it for?” Celestia asked, levitating the map to Oak.
The professor didn’t answer right away; he was looking at the map. “Mmm-hmm. As I expected.” Oak flipped over the map. “This is Equestria, correct?” he questioned, pointing to the large continent in the center of the map.
“Of course.” Celestia said, nodding.
“And what’s over here?” Oak said, gesturing to a good portion of the map that was devoid of anything except blue water.
“That’s the great sea; Sailors have charted it, but there’s nothing there except water.” Celestia replied.
“Well, I’m afraid that’s where you’re wrong, Princess.” Oak stepped forward, then paused. “Permission to approach the throne?”
“Of course.” Celestia said, nodding. Oak walked forward, pulling out something as he did so.
“Princess, this is a map of the world as we humans know it.” Oak said, showing her a device. He pressed a button, and an image was projected into the air: the planet.
“Yes, and?” The princess questioned, seeing nothing out of the ordinary; just Equestria.
Wordlessly, Oak turned the globe with his finger. Celestia’s jaw dropped when she saw the other side. “But… but this can’t be.” She mumbled, looking closer.
“Oh, it is, Princess.” Oak said, pointing to the many small continents covering the opposite side of the globe in long chains of land. “I’m afraid that a little joke’s been played upon your civilization.”
“Explain.” Celestia said.
“You see, Princess: We humans have used… methods… to manipulate the boats which try to enter our side of the planet.” Oak said. He traced a finger along the globe, off the coast of Equestria into the ocean. “The sailors may think they’re sailing in one direction, but we’re subtly changing the water currents… perhaps some small manipulations of the sky so they don’t notice the stars’ positions changing… maybe even a little mental manipulation so no one gets suspicious…” Oak’s traced a line that led around the continents, and eventually back to the other side of Equestria. “And so, while the sailors think they sailed over open ocean, they were really sailing around the land of the humans.” Oak finished. “You see what I’m getting at?”
Celestia nodded. “A couple questions, though.” She added. “First of all, why did you not want us discovering you, and why have you revealed your presence now.”
Oak shrugged. “Your civilization is innocent, virgin, pure. If we came in contact with you, nothing would ever be the same for either of us. That isn’t necessarily a good thing.” Seeing Celestia’s confused expression, he continued. “Our civilization isn’t nearly as peaceful as yours, Princess. If we came in contact, certain human organizations would wreak havoc on your lands. As for why we’ve revealed ourselves… well, I’ll come back to that in a bit.”
Celestia nodded. “Second question,” she asked, her gaze narrowing. “Why, exactly, should I believe this tale of yours? Have you any proof that the continents exist?”
“Well, for starters, I’m a human.” Oak said, spreading his arms. “You’ve thought we were just the stuff of legends, like some sort of lost ape civilization. Now I’m standing in front of you, living and breathing; I think that’s worth something.” Oak reached back into the pocket of his lab coat. “In addition, I brought these.”
Oak passed Celestia a series of photographs. Celestia’s eyebrows raised; the pictures showed in detail structures that couldn’t possibly be made by equestrian hooves, or even magic; in fact, she’d never seen anything like them. There were tall metal structures, and ones made entirely of glass. There were even statues of humans. Nothing in Equestria, not even magic, was capable of faking such advanced, detailed photographs of wonders like these.
“I see. Very well, for the sake of argument, let’s say your tale is true.” Celestia levitated the pictures back to Oak. “How do you know so much about us?”
“Oh, that’s easy.” Oak said. “We have more advanced technology then you do, Princess; we’re capable of taking pictures of things on the other side of the globe, with cameras positioned in outer space. They can even zoom in, to where they could even read the pages of a book, thousands of miles below. We could easily take pictures of your civilization, and work out a few things, such as that you and your sister are the leaders.”
“I see.” Celestia said. She was about to ask something else, when Luna cleared her throat. “May I ask a question?” she requested politely.
“Oh, by all means, Luna. Go right ahead.” Celestia said, gesturing.
“Thank you.” Luna said, turning to Oak. “I was just curious; how exactly did you change the currents of the ocean itself? For that matter, how did you alter the sky, or ponies’ perception?”
Oak tapped the side of his nose. “Ah, I was hoping you’d ask that, for that’s where this tale truly begins.”
Oak stepped back, and reached into his pocket once more. He pulled out a sphere of some kind; Half of it was red, and half of it was white. A button of some kind was aligned between the two halves. Oak threw the ball at the ground, and it clicked open. Red light poured out of the open ball, and solidified, forming a most curious creature.
It had a round body, and its coat was blue. Its underbelly was white, and it stood on its stubby hind legs. It had a face like a mouse, and its arms were also stubby. A crooked tail with a blue sphere on the end sprouted from its behind.
“The human continents are filled to the brim with creatures like these, called Pokemon.” Oak began. (Celestia noticed Luna inhaled sharply at the word “Pokemon”, but the younger sister didn’t say anything.) “Pokemon come in all shapes and sizes, such as this Marill.” Oak nodded at the little creature, which had begun hopping around the room, and trying to say hello to the guards. “The Furfrou you encountered earlier was another Pokemon.” Seeing Celestia’s brow furrow, he clarified, “The messenger dog.”
Seeing Celestia’s face clear, he continued. “By using the powers of specific Pokemon, we’re able to perform incredible feats, like flight, mind control, even changing ocean currents.” He nodded to Luna. “Pokemon and humans have lived together for as long as human civilization can remember, working together in peace and harmony.” Oak’s expression darkened. “Well, almost harmony.
“You see, Princess, our land is littered with the occasional group of people who wish to use Pokemon to meet their own selfish gains. Teams Rocket, Magma, Galactic, Plasma, and Flare, just to name some of them.” Oak explained. “While these groups have been troublesome, they’ve always been thwarted, and justice has prevailed.
“One horrible man, though, did something that could not be forgiven. We’ll come back to him in just a bit.
“There are many Pokemon in our land, Princess. The most rare, elusive, and powerful of these Pokemon, though, are the legendary Pokemon. These legendaries, as they tend to be called, are few in number, and most are completely unique. There’s one legendary, though, which actually is able to reproduce. That legendary Pokemon is named Mew.
“Many years back, a pregnant Mew was found in a jungle, injured and weak. The one who found it was none other than that despicable individual I just mentioned. No one is sure of his name, only that his acts could not be forgiven.
“This awful man took the Mew back to his mansion, deep in the jungle. There, he successfully gave birth to the mew’s child. The mother expired soon after, and the man took it upon himself to… ‘take care’ of the little one.” Oak’s voice now held an undertone of disgust and fear to it, almost as though referring to a traumatic childhood event.
“The man preformed horrific, abominable gene-splicing experiments on the poor baby Mew. These experiments were excruciatingly painful, and for years, the young mew knew nothing but misery and pain at the hands of its master.
“after eight years, the master achieved his goal: create the ultimate Pokemon. Bred only for war, hate and destruction. Invincible and unstoppable. The power of a mew, combined with the advancement of modern technology. He called this pseudo-pokemon…
“Mewtwo.”
Celestia almost instantly felt a spike of pain in her forehead as soon as she heard the name. She placed a hoof to her head, but it had gone as soon as it had come.
“Yes, that’s another thing: his psychic powers are unfathomably powerful. Whenever his name’s mentioned, he knows it.” Oak mentioned. “Sorry, I should have warned you.”
“It’s fine.” Celestia said, putting her hoof back down. “Will he come for us, now that we’ve said his name?”
“Oh, no, I imagine he’s too busy with… other things.” Oak said.
“As I was saying earlier, the horrible man perfected his creation, but he did his job too well. He was unable to control Mewtwo, and it escaped its containment, destroying the mansion it had been imprisoned in, along with its previous master. It escaped into the wild.”
“If it escaped, then how do you know it existed?” Celestia asked.
“Well, I’m not quite finished yet, Princess. You see, a good few years ago, a Pokemon trainer – an individual who is able to tame and befriend Pokemon – encountered Mewtwo, in caves deep underground. He was an experienced, brave explorer, though, and managed to capture Mewtwo, in one of these.” Oak held up the red-and-white ball the marill had come out of. “This is a pokeball, princess; It’s capable of capturing one pokemon for an indefinite period of time.”
“How does it fit in there?” Princess Luna asked, leaning forward to look at the Pokeball.
Oak smiled. “I won’t bore you with details; let’s just say it’s an artificial pocket dimension.
“Anyways, the trainer fought valiantly, but Mewtwo was incredibly strong. As an absolute last resort, when all hope was lost, the trainer resorted to one of these.” Oak held up another pokeball. This one was purple where the other was red, and had two pink spots, as well as an “M” emblazoned on it. “This is a master ball; while other pokeballs may fail at capturing a pokemon, the master ball will, without fail, capture a pokemon. Period.”
“Why not just always use the master balls, then?” Luna asked.
“A good question. They’re extremely rare, and incredibly expensive to manufacture.” Oak explained. “And so, the trainer successfully captured Mewtwo, and for a long time, he used the Mewtwo in pokemon battles and tournaments, but that’s a whole other story.
“And now we finally come to the relevant part.” Oak said, his face darkening. “Barely a week ago, Mewtwo performed an act previously thought impossible: He broke out of a pokeball – a master ball, no less – and murdered his trainer in cold blood.”
“And now he’s here.” Celestia inferred. Oak’s look told her she was right.
“Mewtwo knew he wouldn’t be safe as long as he was on our side of the planet; he escaped to your continent instead. Nobody would have known where he’d gone, but just a couple days ago, when Pokemon started popping up all over your land, we knew he was hidden somewhere on this continent.”
“But what’s he planning? Why reveal himself by summoning these Pokemon?” Luna asked.
Oak shook his head. “Alas, this is where my knowledge ends, Princess. I have no idea where on the continent Mewtwo is, nor do I know why he’s summoning the pokemon here, both revealing his location, and forcing human civilization to reveal themselves to you in order to recapture him.
“All I am certain of is that Mewtwo is planning something… something big.
“And at long last, we come to the rub.” Oak bowed. “Princesses, I would like your permission to send out a legion of pokemon rangers and trainers all over Equestria, in a mass-scale attempt to capture Mewtwo.”
“You have my blessing.” Celestia said without hesitation; Luna nodded with her. “If this Mewtwo is really as dangerous as you imply him to be, we will gladly accept any help we can get. The Equestrian army will also be mobilized as soon as possible, to find this threat.”
“My greatest thanks.” Oak said, bowing. “I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time; I just wanted to inform you of the full severity of the situation.”
“It’s okay; it was either this, or just wait for Mewtwo to unleash his plot.” Celestia said. When she said the name, she felt the spike of pain again, but by now she was expecting it.
“I shall summon for our own forces as soon as I can.” Oak sighed. “To be honest, though, Princess, I don’t have very much hope for either of our armies finding Mewtwo. He’s incredibly smart; he won’t be easy to find.
“Not only that, but even if we do find him, the monster’s power is unfathomable; he once took down an entire army. The only one known to defeat him was the trainer I mentioned earlier. Even the master ball probably won’t hold him; he knows how to escape it, after all.” Oak sighed again. “I only wish there was a foolproof way of defeating Mewtwo…”
“Well,” Luna said, the others turning toward her, “while it may not be foolproof, I definitely have an idea…”