“And the winner is...” Pinkie looked between the Latias and Rainbow Dash, both were obviously expecting her to say their name.
Latias had a small smile on her face, and Dash had a larger one, although Pinkie could see a little nervousness in her’s as well. Latias seemed to lack that, which, to Pinkie, could mean two things. One, she knew she won and wasn’t worried about the results. Or two, she didn’t care about the outcome, and had just enjoyed the race.
Pinkie began to sweat, her legs wobbled, and as she fell to the ground, she shouted the winner. “I DON’T KNOW!!!!”
“....What!?” Dash asked.
Pinkie sniffled. “You guys were moving too fast, I couldn’t see and... I’m sorry.”
Dash frowned for a moment, before smiling gently and walking up to Pinkie. “Don’t worry Pinkie,” She put a foreleg around her friend. “It doesn’t really matter who won, that was the best race I’ve had in a long time.”
She turned to Latias, smiling. “That was a great race,” She walked over to the Legendary and held out her hoof. “We should do this again sometime.”
Latias smiled and shook Dash’s hoof with her claw. “Anytime.”
“So, what’s with the whole...” She gestured at Latias. “You changing form.”
“Did you Evolve?” Pinkie asked excitedly, springing to her feet and bouncing excitedly. “Oh! Does that mean your name changed? Are you Eonias now? Or-”
Latias blinked once before her body was engulfed in a swirling blue light. Once the glow faded Latias’ body was back to her normal, petite, red form.
Latias looked down at her claws. “That was my Mega Form.” Latias explained. “Some Pokémon can-”
Dash held up a hoof. “Gene and Professor Juniper explained Evolution, including that one,” She paused for a second. “I thought you needed a special stone to do that.”
“Most Pokémon do, but me, Latios, and the other Legendaries who can Mega Evolve are able to do it on command.” She looked to her brother. “Although Latios and I need to be near each other to activate it.”
“Why?” Pinkie asked.
Latios, who had floated over after making sure no one had been hurt in the blast, answered. “Another part of Mega Evolution is that a Pokémon has to have a connection to their trainer. Since Legendaries don’t usually get caught, we learned to do it ourselves.”
“Some, like Mewtwo, do it through sheer force of will. But Latios and I do it by focusing the connection we have through our Soul Dew.”
Before Dash could ask what a Soul Dew was, Discord poked his head into her field of view. “As much as I hate to interrupt a budding friendship,” He dangled a camera from his talon. “I set up a camera before the race started in case of a photo finish.”
Dash gaped at him. “What took you so long to tell us?”
Discord grimaced. “Took me awhile to find the camera. Have you seen this place?” He kicked an upturned chair, it folded itself and clattered to the ground. “It’s a total mess.”
Dash and Latias looked around the clearing, taking in the wreckage for the first time. They both laughed nervously.
“Uh huh, anyway, I’m going to develop this.” A room appeared next to him. “I’ll be in the dark room, give me a minute.”
Once Discord walked into the room and locked the door, Pinkie turned to Latias. “What’s a Soul Dew?”
“They’re items Latias and I have,” Latios answered with a smile. “They increase our attack and defense, and as long as we’re within range of each other, and the other’s Soul Dew, we get a boost in Psychic power too.”
“We keep them right next to our hearts.” Latias smiled.
“Aww.” Pinkie cooed.
“No, literally.” Latias said. “They’re part of us, we can just remove them if we need to,” She looked to her brother and smiled softly, though the Ponies looked a bit queasy at the image THAT gave them. “For whatever reason.”
At that point Discord walked out of the dark room, holding a picture in his talon. He had an almost nervous expression on his face.
“Finally,” Dash said. “So, who won?”
Discord handed Dash the picture. “I enhanced it with magic so you could actually see it.” He said. “But I didn’t mess with the outcome.”
Latias looked over Dash’s shoulder. They both eyeballed the photo for a moment, then looked to each other, then back at the picture.
“We tied?!”
“We tied?”
They both asked.
“Apparently.” Discord said, taking a few steps back.
“Ugggh!” Dash face hooved. “You know what this means right?”
“That you finally met an opponent who’s your equal?” Latias asked.
“Well... maybe. But it also means we’re going to have to race again.” Dash smirked. “Maybe on a bigger race course this time.”
Latias smirked. “Anytime, anywhere.”
Dash’s eyes narrowed. “How about-”
“Not right now.” Fluttershy interrupted. “I think we could use some help with the clean up,” She gestured to the mess. “If you don’t mind.”
Dash and Latias looked at each other, then Dash shouted. “First one to finish picks the next race track!”
Twilight hummed a familiar tune to herself as she sorted through some of her notes. Her conversation with Gene and Belle earlier had provided some interesting points on Earth’s social structure. Although Juniper told her they were likely more than a little biased.
Speaking of Juniper, the Pokémon Professor was floating in front of a mirror she had brought down from Twilight’s room for a test she ran on Mage. The reason being was that she had managed to find a lab coat while getting some supplies from Twilight’s basement.
“If it was light blue it’d be just perfect.” Juniper said. “Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.”
Twilight smiled and sorted through a few more pages. “Juniper? How familiar are you with-”
Twilight was interrupted by a knock at her door. She sighed. “Doesn't anypony know what privacy means?”
“Isn't this a public library?” Juniper asked. She focused her Psychic a bit and the door swung open a crack. “Yes!” She cheered, happy to FINALLY be making progress.
Two Pokémon Twilight had never seen before pushed the door open the rest of the way, two smaller ones on their shoulders. “Hi.” One of the greeted. “I’m Solana and this is Lunick.”
Probably former humans. Twilight thought to herself.
“We’re looking for Princess Twilight?”
“You found her.” Twilight walked up to the pair. “What can I do for you?... is this is about going back to Earth or something? If yes, then I’m sorry, but I can’t really do anything about it.”
Lunick shook his head. “No, we were told you might be able to help us with something.”
Juniper floated over to them, her eyes widened once she saw the red head bands they were wearing. Oh please let me be wrong about this. She thought as she floated over to Twilight’s notes and began absentmindedly organizing them.
“What do you need?” Twilight asked.
Solana stepped forward. “Your highness, Lunick and I are Pokémon Rangers, these are our Partner Pokémon, Plusle and Minun.”
Juniper froze in her work, which left a few papers floating in midair for a second before they fluttered to the ground.
Twilight smiled politely and said. “I haven’t met any Pokémon Rangers yet, just some Trainers and Gym Leaders.”
Lunick smiled. “Well your highness-”
“You can just call me Twilight.” Twilight interrupted.
“Twilight,” Lunick said with a smile. “Pokémon Rangers are a form of law enforcement back on Earth, specifically founded to protect Pokémon.”
“And we recently encountered a known fugitive who the Union’s been after for some years now.” Solana added.
Juniper would have been gritting her teeth if she still had any.
“And we can’t arrest him because we don’t have any authority here, and he’s using what Lord Arceus did as a way to rationalize his crimes.”
Twilight thought for a moment, remembered what she’d learned over the past few days, then frowned. “Is this about Gene and Belle?”
Solana’s smile faded. “So you know them.”
“Yeah,” Twilight said. “And I’m happy to count him as a friend. Belle too.” Twilight didn't want to play favorites but... her sister in law was the Princess of Love. Enough said.
“Twilight,” Lunick said. “You've only heard his side of the story, don’t you think you should hear the side who actually obeyed the law?”
Juniper turned to Twilight and the Rangers. Hoping the Alicorn wouldn't listen to this, she hated hearing it every time.
Twilight thought on the matter for a moment. I don’t see why not. It’ll give me some more insight in Earth’s culture too. And besides, its only fair to hear both sides first.
“Alright,” Twilight said, and Juniper felt like banging her head against the table. “But this had better be purely factual. I don’t want you bashing anyone based on their love life.”
Juniper sighed, though she really should have expected this. Twilight always tried to be a reasonable person, and thus was willing to listen to all sides before making a decision... didn't mean she had to like it though. And with that, she floated into the kitchen. She was going to need something to calm her nerves. Maybe some tea.
Twilight pulled a mostly empty notebook to her and sat down in one of the chairs, motioning for Lunick and Solana to take the coach.
“To start off with, what are you?” Twilight asked, before clarifying, “Pokémon wise.”
“I’m a Hitmontop, and Solana is a Medicham.” Lunick answered. Twilight nodded and continued.
“So,” Twilight began, writing down some notes on the subjects. “Why don’t you tell me just what being a Pokémon Ranger entitles?”
“We’re a form of international law enforcement specializing in the protection of Pokémon and their habitats.” Solana answered.
“And how do you do this?” Twilight asked. “With Pokémon you capture?”
“Yes, but not like Trainers.” Lunick explained. “We use a device called a Capture Stylus to send feelings of friendship to wild Pokémon and get them to help us when we need them.”
Twilight nodded and underlined the phrase ‘feelings of friendship’. So far they seemed reasonable enough, so she was glad she wouldn't have to worry about dealing with something similar to her talk with Hard Proof again.
“Ok, now why don’t you explain to me, as unbiasedly as you can, the situation involving Belle, Gene, and the... Ranger Union right?”
Solana and Lunick looked at each other, then whispered something. “Well Princess,” Solana started. “As you know, Human and Pokémon relationships are extremely forbidden on Earth.”
“Yes, Gene and Korrina and Falkner and several others have made that clear.” Twilight thought for a moment. “And I’m still a bit confused, Pokémon are obviously intelligent enough to make their own choices. Or else every Pokémon I’ve met has been an exception.”
Lunick frowned. “The thing is... you know how trainers capture their Pokémon?”
“Pokéballs.” Twilight answered calmly, even if she still didn't quite like the idea of those things.
Lunick nodded and continued. “You see Twilight, a Pokémon bonds with its Trainer, and since Pokémon are usually captured in their first form, and they’re usually young at that point. They can be... conditioned.”
From the kitchen Twilight heard Juniper mumbling something about not being able to drink.
“This can lead to, in some cases, a form of a condition called Stockholm Syndrome, where-”
“Where a captive forms an emotional bond with their captor.” Twilight finished. “We have a similar thing called Stockhooves Syndrome.” Twilight was beginning to pick up on some parallels between Equus and Earth, mainly in the naming of certain things.
“Right,” Solana said with a smile. “So the people who start a relationship with their Pokémon condition them to love them from a young age, then take the relationship to the,” She actually shivered in disgust. “Next level, when they evolve.”
Twilight paused in her note taking. From a certain perspective, that made sense... and she could see what they were trying to say... but she also noticed that a few things did stick out about their argument.
“Ok, first off, your saying that every trainer who’s ever fallen in love with their Pokémon, and vice versa. Conditioned them to love them?” Twilight asked.
Solana and Lunick looked at each other, doubt on their faces, thinking over what she just said. Now that they actually thought about, they realized that that fact never was confirmed or denied in ANY reported arrests. “How many reports of Poképhilia are there each year?” Twilight asked.
“A hundred maybe?” Solana asked. “It’s a hard crime to pin down.”
“Actually before I forget, I want to point something out,” Twilight said. “You keep saying the crime is referred to as Poképhilia, but if Equish and English are as alike in roots as they are in structure and sound, then Poképhilia is derived from the ‘Poké’ in Pokémon and ‘Philia’ meaning ‘love or affection’.”
Solana thought for a second. “That sounds about right.”
Twilight blinked as the small holes she had noticed just got bigger. “Just so I’m clear, the crime is actually loving a Pokémon as you would a member of your own species?” At this she frowned slightly.
Lunick thought about it for a moment, before nodding in confirmation, telling her that she was right. Her frown only deepened at the response.
“Ok, now a question. Are Pokémon just as intelligent as humans? Or do you think they’re all less intelligent than you?”
“It... depends,” Solana said slowly. “Some, like Metagross, Alakazam, and Haxorus are more intelligent. Most Pokémon are at least human level in their final form, although quite a few are more instinctually driven. Pokémon in their first form are usually comparable to children, unless they choose not to evolve for whatever reason.”
“So, basically, the answers yes?” Twilight asked.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Lunick said with a frown. “But yes.”
“How about emotionally? Equal? Lesser? What?”
“Again, it depends.” Lunick explained. “Some Pokémon. Chansey, Togekiss... Gardevoir, are actually capable of sensing, and sometimes controlling portions of the emotional spectrum.” He thought for a moment, then continued. “Some Pokémon, Tyranitar or Hydreigon for example, are naturally more aggressive. But it’s not the same throughout the species.”
“It differs from Pokémon to Pokémon, depending on their personality, how they were raised, and that part doesn't matter if it’s by a Trainer or their parents.” Solana added.
“But the general answer is yes?” Twilight repeated.
“In most cases, yes. Especially with final forms.” Lunick concluded, not really sure what she was trying to get at.
“Great. Next question. Are Pokémon capable of making choices on their own?”
“Of course we are!” Minun cried indignantly. “I chose to be Lunick’s partner Pokémon.”
Twilight couldn't help but smile as the little Electric-type pouted and crossed his arms while Plusle patted him on the back, comforting her friend. It was really cute, and it helped to confirm her opposing ideas aside, these two were good people and truly did care for the Pokémon they protected, if the emotions Minun was showing were any indication
“Good, now for a few quick scenarios. Say a Pokémon chooses to join their trainer for whatever reason, and on their journey, the two fall in love. What is that to you?”
“Poképhilia.” Solana answered immediately. That was usually how the arrested trainers pleaded their case.
“Ok, but what if they’re the final form of that Pokémon family say... I don’t know, a Delphox instead of a Fennekin.”
Lunick and Solana looked at each other for a moment, not exactly sure how to answer that, but ultimately came to the same conclusion. “Still Poképhilia.” Solana answered, but this time she sounded less assured.
Twilight nodded. “Ok, what if a human who’s not a trainer, doesn't matter the profession. Befriends a wild Pokémon and after a while, they fall in love?”
“Uhh...” Lunick looked to Solana neither of them said anything for a moment. “Poképhilia?” At this point even they weren't sure if that was the right answer anymore.
“Why?” Twilight asked, as their answers had just confirmed what she suspected. “On the last two scenarios, there was barely any chance of Stockhooves Syndrome occurring, and almost none in the third one.”
“Because,” Solana started, a lump forming in her throat at the implications she was beginning to realize. “They’re still in... a... relation... ship...”
“So the crime isn't meant to stop trainers from abusing their Pokémon’s trust, or just abusing them. It’s actually designed to prevent a Pokémon and a human from falling in love no matter the case.” Twilight said with a frown. The more she was hearing, the more she questioned just how much the law REALLY was for the Pokémons' sakes.
It wasn't a question, but Solana nodded anyway, albeit hesitantly. That just confirmed Twilight’s suspicions.
“So then you’re preventing what you see as two equally sapient beings from loving each other in any way other than friendship based solely on their species?”
Lunick and Solana looked to each other again. Confusion and disbelief on their faces. That WASN’T what the law was supposed to mean... as far as they believed at least. “Y... yes.” Lunick finally said, as like it or not, that was exactly what their entire conversation had ended up implying.
“So then either the laws are completely based off a sense of racial purity, or Pokémon aren’t equal enough to be able to truly love?” Twilight asked.
“Ok, now you’re going too far!” Solana snapped. Princess or not, she wasn’t about to let Twilight get away with THAT comment about the Pokémon. “We do what we do to protect Pokémon from sicko’s who want to take advantage of them.”
“But,” Twilight said calmly. “You just agreed that the only parameters you need to arrest someone for Poképhilia, or loving a Pokémon, are that they... love their Pokémon. That could be interpreted as a kiss, a loving glance shared from across the room, how they act around each other, even just holding hands.”
“What?! Don’t you have laws governing things like this?” Solana demanded.
“No. We have laws preventing bestiality, which only applies to animals. Not other sapient races.”
Solana was shocked silent for a moment, then through clenched teeth she asked. “Are you implying that we view Pokémon as mindless beasts?”
“No, no, no,” Twilight apologized. “Not at all. It just seems that you don’t really see them as equals.”
Solana didn’t answer. “One last thing,” Twilight said. “Has this stigma against Poképhilia been drilled into you, by your parents, by society, since you were old enough to deal with that kind of thing? I’m assuming around the ages ten to twelve, and I’m being conservative.”
Solana though back, to when her parents had first given her “The talk.” After hearing the textbook. “When a man and a woman love each other very much-” She had asked what if the man or woman loved a Pokémon.
Her parents had told her straight that even the idea of a relationship like that was very. Very. VERY bad. And that if she ever heard of one, she should go to a Ranger Base and tell a Ranger.
Meanwhile Lunick remembered the life and health class he had gone through before heading to Ranger School. How the sex unit had been handled. How the teacher had sent a child to the principal’s office after he continued pointing out similarities between humans and some Pokémon and asking why it was wrong.
“But... but they can’t reproduce.” Solana said, trying to find something to defend the rule that they had honestly believed was made for the sake and protection of Pokémon, and not to serve some-she dreaded the idea-racist ideal that viewed Pokémon as lower/inferior to humans when they had always believed Pokémon to be the equals and companions of humans. Heck, it was the reason why the two of them were amongst the top Rangers when dealing with crimes that involved the use and/or abuse of Pokémon.
Twilight looked up from her notes and cocked her head, as she decided to ‘deliver the final blow’ to a case that at this point was so full of holes, it barely held any weight to her anymore. “How does Earth handle same sex relationships?” She asked, as Solana’s argument applied to that sort of relationship as well
Solana felt her heart drop when she realized the answer. “They’ve... been accepted for decades.”
Twilight wrote that down. “So tell me, if Pokémon are fully sapient beings, fully capable of feeling complex emotions and acting on those emotions of their own free will. Why is every human/Pokémon relationship considered a crime against nature?”
The Rangers thought hard for a moment, trying to find ANY reason other than the now painfully obvious reason that went against everything they believed in, and sadly for them, they didn’t find any. So with heads hanging in shameful realization, they answered. “Because... because...” Solana felt tears stinging her eyes as the truth, the REAL truth and not those seemingly noble lies that had been fed to them for years, was laid bare before them. “Because they’re different species.” She finished, looking like her entire world had just been smashed to pieces
“Arceus,” Lunick said in shock and disgust. “All this time...and it was just because they’re different?” Lunick recalled the few cases of Poképhilia they had made arrests on, remembering how devastated both the humans and Pokémon seemed in many of them. At the time they hadn’t thought anything about it, as they had viewed the humans as sick and inhuman people who only deserved to be locked up, while they thought the Pokémon as victims of the depravity of some humans. Now that they realized that some, if not many of those couples might REALLY have been in love, AND that the law that was viewed as one of the most important laws enforced for Pokémon protection, might have really been started by some racist ideal that viewed Pokémon as inferior to humans... He felt nauseous.
It was at this point that Juniper floated out of the kitchen, holding a cup of tea, but pouting. “-Solar energy, possibly radiation, absorbs liquid from the surrounding air most likely,” She sighed. “But not tea.”
Her eyes fell on the Rangers sitting on the couch, and while she had been expecting a lot of thing, the broken looks on their faces, like someone had just told them that everything they believed in was a lie, was NOT something she had expected to see. “Twilight? What’s going on?”
“Umm...” Twilight hadn’t really meant to bring out this kind of reaction. “Progress... I think? ... you have a Phd. in psychology right?”
Luna sipped her tea and smiled as the temperature in her room dropped. It was just after eleven and Luna had managed to get some sleep, plus a trip to the dreamscape, before her student was scheduled to arrive.
“Greetings Princess.” Darkrai said as he rose from the shadows on the floor.
“Hello Darkrai,” She said with a smile. “I trust you enjoyed the party last night?” Luna had almost accompanied Darkrai to the party, but her duties in the dreamscape had kept her from it.
Darkrai smiled softly. “Yes, Cresselia and I... it was fun.”
Luna smirked. She knew sending Darkrai to the party had been the right thing to do, especially after hearing Cresselia was going.
“Good, now come with me. There’s something I want to show you.” As Luna lead Darkrai out of her room, he expected her to take him to her personal library again. Instead, he followed her down several flights of stairs until they came to a set of large doors.
“I’ve set up something special for you tonight,” Luna said as she pushed the doors open.
Darkrai floated into the room behind Luna. It was a large domed room, with various bits of equipment scattered near the edges. “I sent my Lunar Guard on a training exercise near Cloudsdale so that we would be able to train in peace.” Luna walked out to the center of the training room.
She lit her horn and a small dome grew at her hooves. After a few minutes, she stopped and examined the bubble. Apparently pleased with her work, she moved to a new spot and began again. She repeated the process ten times, leaving ten glowing domes on the field.
“What is this?” Darkrai asked.
“These are dream spheres.” Luna explained. “They’re an invention of mine which I designed to hold dreams, just in case I ever needed to record a particularly odd one. These one’s I’ve based off the dreams you would find on any average night in the dreamscape, and altered them from the original versions.”
“Interesting,” Darkrai said. “What do you want me to do?”
Luna smiled. “Your biggest issue is that you lack the subtle touch needed to control dreams,” She gestured to the field. “This will let you hone your skills without endangering anyone.”
“But we've only been training for two days,” Darkrai argued. “I’m nowhere near ready.”
“And you never will be with that attitude.” Luna said with finality. “You know how dream magic works, and your power appears to be compatible with Equestrian magic. Now it’s time to test it out.” Luna was going for a more hooves on approach.
Luna pushed Darkrai towards the spheres. The Dark-type reluctantly placed himself in the center of the field.
“Whenever you are ready, my young pupil.” Luna said, mimicking what her sister often said.
“I’m at least a few hundred years older than you.” Darkrai said. “Probably at least a millennia.”
“Didn't your mother ever tell you it’s rude to guess at a mares age?” Luna teased.
Darkrai raised an eyebrow. “Lord Arceus made me from the darkness of the new moon and the energy of nightmares. You could say the night itself is my mother.”
Luna had no response for that. “Just... show me what you can do.”
Darkrai sighed and sent his consciousness into the dreamscape. He felt the dreams contained within the dream spheres. As well as his own nightmarish tendrils of his power reaching for them.
“Concentrate on containing your power,” He quoted one of the books he had read. “You cannot let your own magic interfere with the original dream.”
As he said that, one of his tendrils reached into one of the dreams, a common dream that seemed to be about flying. As Darkrai’s energy took hold, the sky darkened, and the pony went from flying to falling in an instant.
“Control.” Darkrai said. As the pony in the dream continued to fall, the other dreams began to degrade as well. Fantasies, lucid dreams, even the two nightmares Luna had included became more and more horrific.
Darkrai strained himself trying to pull back his energy. “I can do this.” He told himself. “For her.” Darkrai thought of Cresselia, he thought back to his own nightmare a few nights ago. In that moment, Darkrai felt his own energy pull back into him just a little bit, as if someone had lit a candle in a dark room.
Before Darkrai could get over the shock, one of the dreams crashed as the dreamer met their demise. This caused a chain reaction in Darkrai’s magic, making all the dreams crash.
Darkrai dropped from the dreamscape, panting. Luna ran up beside him. “Are you alright?” She asked worriedly.
“I failed.” He grumbled.
“Perhaps, but I saw your energy, the portion that causes nightmares, retreat back into you. If only for a second,” Luna smiled and put a wing around Darkrai. “That, my student, is progress.”
Darkrai smiled.
“Now, I’ll set the spheres up again, and we’ll see how well you do this time.” Luna trotted off to begin the exercise again.
Darkrai did his best not to groan. “This is going to be a long night.”