//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Strange New World // Story: A New World, Burning an Old Way // by xBUBBA1995x //------------------------------// A New World, Burning an Old Way Written by: xBUBBA1995x Edited by: zeusdemigod131 Edited by: tdnpony Pre-Reader: Dragaen Chapter 1 - Strange New World         Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, ruler of the Crystal Empire, sat in the conference hall of her Crystal Castle, though she didn’t really have to be there. Today was a simple day. All of the ponies under her watch were debating on how they should celebrate the upcoming Anniversary of their Independence. This year they had hosted the Equestria Games! It was a great time for all involved mostly, but on the whole, everypony had a fun time. Now the question was, how were they going to top it?         Many ideas had been tossed around, but nothing was set in stone just yet. “Princess Cadence,” One of the stallions spoke up. “What do you think about this years celebration?”         Princess Cadence couldn’t help but smile. “We do have a whole year ahead of us to come up with ideas, but if I know Celestia, as long as there’s cake, she will come!”         This got a chuckle out of most of the ponies, while others just smiled. The Princess was right. They did have the whole year ahead of them. They didn’t have to come up with anything at the moment, and Cadence knew this. “You know what…” She started again. “Since today is so nice, how about we finish up, and take the rest of the day off?”         Some of the ponies in the room didn’t want to leave, but the Princess was right. Today was a beautiful day. The sun was shining bright and the shield that protected the city radiated a wonderful color! And all was well. At least it WAS well…until the explosion. -:-:- Meanwhile, and about two minutes before the explosion, a Unicorn Stallion stood heroically. Standing before him was a large group of stallions and mares from all across Equestria who had all come to see the lovely Crystal Empire for themselves. In other words, a tourist group. And the stallion standing heroically loved Tourist. “Hello everypony,” The stallion started. “My name is Shining Armor, head of the Crystal Empire Royal Guard, and husband to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. And this,” He gestured to the large Crystal Castle above. “Is the Crystal Castle. Home to the Crystal Heart, as well as the Princess herself.” A hoof belonging to a small filly shot up. Shining looked at her and smiled. “Yes little one, do you have a question?” The filly looked at up Shining, and asked with the cutest of voices. “Can we see the Crystal Heart, sir?” Shining just nodded. “Once you ponies are finished with your tour, the tour guide will show you to the Crystal Heart. Now, does anypony have any questions about the Crystal Castle?” Most of the ponies raised there hooves. However, before Shining could answer any of the questions an explosion blasted through the air. Making all the ponies scream and run in the opposite direction of the source of the sound. Shining Armor, however, started to run towards the source of the explosion. -:-:-         I opened my eyes, everything I saw was blurry. The sun was shining bright and made it hard to see. I rubbed my eyes, wiping the sleep from them. Then rubbed my hand through my hair. Wait... what? I placed both hands on my head. My hair… It was short. Did I get my hair cut? My hair was also... warm? Why was my hair warm?         I brought my hands down to look at them. Then I looked at my arms. Then down at my body…. “What?” Was all I could say. “What is… What is going on?” My body was covered in white fur. My arms and legs had a thin coat of brown fur, and my hands were blue. My mind started to race. “Why am I an Infernape!?”         I stood up and started to pace around. “This has to be a dream! I have to be sleeping! Or on drugs! Or this is real, no, no, this can’t be real!”          As I started to mentally break down I did not notice a pair of strange Pokémon watching me. The larger of the two looked like a black and gold lion, but with large mouse ears and a star on the tip of his tail. The white of his eyes were not white, but a bright yellow. And for the color part of his eyes were black. His face, and the bottom of his legs, where all a golden yellow. This Pokémon’s name was Luxray.         Sitting next to him was a fluffy white Pokémon. Her face, as well as her claws and tail, where a stunning blue. Extending off to the side of her face stood a blade that she used to cut things with. This beautiful creature was a Absol.         They both just watched the Infernape with a smile on their faces. Seeing him walk around like an idiot was rather amusing to them; at least until he started to hit his head against a tree, then they started to get worried.         The Luxray was first to speak. “John?” He said in a deep voice. “John?” The Infernape named John just kept hitting his head, unaware of the Luxray that was trying to get his attention. “John?”         The Absol, unlike the Luxray, didn’t try to go for the ‘soft’ approach. The Infernape in front of them needed to calm down! And what better way than to literally knock some sense into him! There isn’t a better way, by the way.         “Shadow Ball,” she said, right before a black ball slammed into John.         John now laid on his back, staring up at the sky. His disposition was completely changed. He took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. -John’s POV- “Thank you, Snow.” Pulling myself up I looked at her. “So… have any ideas why I am an Infernape?”          “Nope.” She smirked.           “...Alright so… Other than becoming a Pokémon. I now understand Pokémon.” I stated. Doing my best to stay calm.         “Well all Pokémon can understand each other.” I glanced over at the voice to see a Luxray. From his shiny pelt to his golden paws and face, I knew that this was my Luxray.          “Lex! You’re here too? Let me guess, everyone else is just going to jump out and scare me right?”          “We’re sorry John, but we are the only two here.” Snow explained.          My eyes opened wide. “Wait. You mean we’re the only ones here?” They nodded. My mind was about to go to a dark place. Think what could have happened to them. Did they get captured by Team Rocket? Were they lost? But before my mind could even start wondering an explosion caught my attention. -:-:-         “What the hell is this thing?!” A generic Crystal Empire Guard screamed before getting smacked by a blue alligator-like tail and launched into a store window.          “Just keep it occupied,” Shining Armor called out. “Once the cannons get here we’ll be able to take it out!”          The large blue alligator creature let out a mighty roar before it unleashed a massive blast of water out of it’s mouth, punching holes in building and tearing up the street. It had already hit a gas line, causing a massive explosion. Said explosion took out half a block, some ponies were injured, but luckily nopony was killed. Shining took a step forward. His pony forces either were knocked out, or were too scared to face this monster. He had to step up. To fight it himself. “Soldier,” He spoke. Scaring the mare next to him. “Give me your spear.” The soldier didn’t argue and hoofed over his spear willingly. Shining took it in his magical grasp. It was show time. Placing the spear to his side, he charged the alligator. It let out another blast of water; he leaped left and it missed him. The distance between the two was now in Shinings attack ranged. He lifted his spear and thrusted. The alligator saw this and jumped back.         Shining bit his teeth. Even with its size the alligator was fast. Almost too fast for Shining Armor, its claws started to glow and it dashed forward. Shining brought up a shield just in time. The Alligator’s claws raked across the shield, tearing massive gaps in it. Leaping back, Shining had to rethink how to approach this situation. The cannons had yet to arrive, but he didn’t want this thing to go free. He had to stall it till then.         The Alligator attacked again. This time it rammed into Shining.Slamming his head into his lower chest, knocking the air out of him. If it weren't for his armor he would have some broken bones from that hit.         “Sir! The cannons will be here in under two minutes!” Another soldier yelled. Shining smiled. Good. He would not have to hold the creature off for too long.         Then the large alligator was hit by a blast of thunder. It screamed, or made a sound similar to screaming and Shining Armor’s eyes went wide as three strange creatures appeared out of no where. Two were strange looking dog-like creatures and one was a monkey; and it’s head was on fire. “By Celestia, what in the world?” Was his only response to this situation. The monkey let out a screech, pointing one of his fingers at the alligator. Then the larger blue dog’s body lit up and thunder blasted out again. The monkey let out another sound, and this time the smaller white dog slammed into the alligator. With the size difference he didn’t expect much force in the hit.   Boy was he surprised when the alligator flew back a good ten feet, slammed into a building, fell forward on it’s face, and didn’t get up. You know what. ‘Surprised’ isn’t the right word here. Flabbergasted would more accurately explain the look on his face. -:-:-         I stood in between my Pokemon. The fallen Feraligatr laid unconscious. I turned around to the… ponies? They looked like Ponyta. Only different… A lot different. The closest one was male and full white with multi colored blue hair and purple armor. His eyes were wide. Then… three cannons rolled up beside him, and where were aimed right at us… Shit.         “Take cover!” I yelled. And I jumped through the nearest window. Then… nothing happened.          I peaked out the window to see that the stallion was holding his hoof up. He looked curious. I jumped out of the window and started to walk towards him. He seemed hesitant, but his eyes dashed between myself and my pokemon.         “Can you two stay back?” I turned to Snow and Lex. “I think after that,” I pointed at Feraligatr. “They’re a bit on edge.”         Turning back to the stallion I walked slowly towards him. My hands up. “That’s close enough.” He said to me.         “Alright. I’ll stand right here.”         “...What?” He asked.         “I said, I will stand right here.”         “I can’t understand you,” He replied.         I slumped my arms and hung my head. Great! I have no idea what is going, I became a pokemon, and now I have to communicate with some creature that doesn't understand me. I facepalmed, then looked up into the sky. Then at a sign hanging off of one of the buildings. It read, “Coffee shop! For all your coffee desires!” The master mind that lived in my mind had an idea. I looked down at the ground and started to write in the dirt.         “What are you doing?” He asked.         I looked up at him, smiled, and beckoned him to me. He slowly walked up.         “Careful sir!” One of the ponies behind the cannons called out.         “I will. Just keep the cannons on him, and wait for my orders!” The stallion called out.         In the dirt I wrote the falling. “Hello. My name is John. Where are we? Who are you? Did the Feraligatr hurt anyone?”         He read what I wrote, and looked up at me questionably. “John?” I nodded. “My name is Shining Armor. And that,” He looked back down at what I wrote. “Feraligatr?” He asked curiously. “Right…. Yes. The Feraligatr... did injure many ponies when it destroyed a gas line.” This made my eyes widen. Then… his eyes widened? Why?         He took a step back. “ You know your head is on fire right?” I nodded.         “HE MEANS MORE SO THAN USUAL!” Snow yelled.         I looked back at her, then to my head. Yep. I was on fire. Nothing new there. Only the fire was three feet tall and just light the coffee shop on fire… I let out a long sigh.  It was just going to be one of those days… -:-:-         I sat at a table across from Shining. My head was no longer a massive ball of fire. No, now it was just a small ball of fire. Which was good. Ponies scrambled to put out the fire that I had caused. Since the incident, Shining and I had a long conversation. Mostly including who I was and who were the two with me. Oh, and about the Feraligatr. A lot of questions were about him. “Alright so let me get this straight. Your name is John. You use to be human, but something changed you to a pokemon. A pokemon is an animal that is very powerful. They come in many shapes and sizes, and not all,” He looked at the Feraligatr sitting in a large cage. “Are… insane and going on a rampage?” “Yes.” I scribed using a pencil on the notepad that I was given. Shining let out a sigh. “This is almost as confusing as the Changeling attack.” He then started to rub his temple. “Do you mind if I ask some questions?” He looked at the note pad and nodded. “You never answered where we were.” “Oh, Well we are in the Crystal Empire. Over there,” He pointed his hoof at a large tower. “Is the center of the city, as well as the Crystal Castle.” “And where is that?” “The Crystal Empire is in the northern half of Equestria.”         “And what is Equestria?”         “What do you mean? Everyone on Equus knows what Equestria is.” I just stared at him. Then my face and the table became best of friends as I slammed my face into said table.         “Are you alright?” He sounded worried. Somewhat.         I looked up at him. Grabbed my pencil, saw that I had light the corner of the notepad i was using on fire, and let out a long sigh. Extinguishing the flame by slapping the notepad on the table a few times. I then wrote the falling. “The Short answer is that ‘Equus’ is not the name of the planet I am from. I am a Alien apparently. And I am also doing my best not to scream.” I then tore that paper out and handed it to him. Then while he read I wrote a longer explanation. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN I AM NOT ON PLANET EARTH?! What in the world happened? Why am I a pokemon?! And who the hell did this?! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” His reaction to the second note was a annoying smile. “You know there's something odd about you. I just can’t place my hoof on it.” Instead of writing anything down I just spoke out loud. “You have no idea, Shining Armor…” “I wonder if anyone knows a translation spell…” Shining thought aloud. I ignored him mostly. My thoughts started to wander around. I looked over at Lex and Snow. They were sitting in front of the Feraligatr cage. Watching him. He had woken up some time ago, and after learning he was in a cage tried to go all nuts again. Lex had a different plan. The kind that includes pain, mostly on the Feraligatr's part. That is if he tries to run, or break the cage. Really the only thing he can do is sit there and look pretty. “You seem stressed.” Shining pointed out. Thank you captain obvious. I didn’t know I was stressed. “I had a lot of work that needed to be finished, and now I don't think I can do most of it.” “What type of work?” “Tracking down a criminal organization hell bent on taking over the world.” “R-realy? So are you like a detective?” Before I could answer Shining stood up. A look of both love and respect lay on his face. He was looking down the road, and from the sounds of it a chariot was on its way. I looked over, and saw two large normal stallions pulling a fancy carriage. I say normally because unlike Shining, they did not have a horn, and unlike some of the other stallions around here, they did not have wings. So really I was surrounded by Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns. Ya… The fancy carriage then stopped in front of us. Shining stepped forward and leaned closed to the door. He said something… I could not hear what it was. But he did smile afterwards. “Introducing,” His horn glowed as the door opened. “Princess Cadance of the Crystal Empire.”