//------------------------------// // Reunion // Story: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Friendship // by mooneyboys //------------------------------// “… And that’s how I ended up here” I finish saying to her. I just finished my entire tale of saving the planet with Curtis and that took the better part of several days. Apparently Celestia wanted to hear every little detail from my adventures with Curtis. It still awed me to see Celestia raise and lower the sun like a god. “Well that is certainly quite a tale,” Celestia mumbles through a mouthful of cake that she ordered. “I’m not even sure I would believe it even if I was there!” I was about to reply to her when a royal guard came in. “Sorry to interrupt Princess” He said with a bow. “But I am here for two things. First….” He hesitates and looks around, as if he is guilty of a crime and is trying to claim he’s innocent. “It’s ok” the solar princess soothes the guard. “I don’t shoot the messenger for bringing bad news. You know that.” “R-right” He said through a deep breath. “Of course, my apologies your majesty.” He takes another breath as the princess nods for him to go on. “First, we have reports of another region being... Frozen in time.” The air around mine and the princess’ breath tensed as quickly as it came. No one said anything for a good minute before I manage to say one word. “What?” “Indeed madam. We have reports that the Northern Equestria and the Crystal Empire have been frozen in time. Evidence being that the snowstorms that the region is known for are all not moving. Even when the snow is in midair, it didn’t float to the ground. Pegasi report that it’s more difficult for them to fly within the region and the unicorns report a distinct lack of magic. Conclusion: Princess, all evidence points to a time gear being stolen from that region.” “I see…” Celestia’s face is rather grim. Then it immediately lightened up, to my surprise. “You said there were two reports. What of the second one?” “Well this one is much lighter I can tell you that much Princess. The provoker of the Dodge Junction Incident has been captured about a week ago by this point and the Royal Interrogator Mage Light personally went to question the captive. We received a letter yesterday saying she is taking it up to Canterlot for further questioning and just entered the city as we speak.” “Dodge Junction?” I ask curiously. Celestia answered for me. “It is a place near the changeling badlands. We had reports of a blue bipedal dog thing making a disturbance. At first we thought it was an oddly colored diamond dog but we were wrong. Reports are sketchy but shortly after capture and several questionings he broke out and fought against our guards that were stationed there. Mage Light’s personal guards took the worst of the injuries during a close quarters engagement with it. So Mage Light threw it out the window and the guard rushed it an attempt to subdue it. It surprised everyone when it slammed its fist in the ground and caused a mini earthquake to erupt. We managed to subdue it by having our mages fire waves of magic projectiles at it.” The guard nodded in agreement. “Indeed, as the princess stated. As I said before, they have arrived recently and the Royal Interrogator should report in soon.” He gives off a quick salute. “Your majesty, with your permission I take my leave.” he says, and the moment Celestia nodded at him for him to go on, he turns around and walks back into the castle. “Did he say really say a bluish wolf thing?” I say aloud. “Indeed he did. I believe he said his species name is a…. Riolu I think it was?” My ears perk up and I jump out of my seat. “A Riolu!? Are you sure?” “Yes I am certain the report said it was a Riolu, why?” she asks curiously. “Weren’t you listening!? My partner was a Riolu! It’s him! It’s Curtis!” Without waiting for her to reply I race away from the balcony and down the hallway to where the gates are in the castle. I turn (and bump into) the corner to see a battlionish of guards surrounding a lone Riolu. “Curtis!” I scream happily and charge toward him, intent on getting a hug from a long lost friend. Curtis turns toward my voice and beams at me the moment his eyes lay upon me. “Jasmine!” He screams as his chains that held his arms together broke off, scaring his guards back several feet. He leaps toward me and I ran even faster to meet with him even sooner. The moment we made contact makes everything feel right. Like from now on, everything will be okay and nothing bad can happen anymore. “Oh Jasmine…. You’re alright.” Curtis says in the middle of our hug. “And you’re here,” I reply back. “Not that it is a bad thing I mean, but what are you doing here? I thought Dialga put me here. How did you get here?” He breaks the hug; “By Dialga of course!” he smile gets bigger. “I came here to look for you. To take you home.” “Take me home? How? I’ve been here for…. Two weeks I think? Two weeks and I haven’t seen a clue on how to get home.” “Don’t worry about that. Dialga gave me something to let us know when to pick us up.” “Really? That’s great!” I nearly bounce in joy. Then I grow serious and slightly grim. “But… We can’t leave yet. This planet needs us.” “Really? Why, what happened?” “Time…” I start but Celestia cuts me off. “Time has come to a standstill here.” She looks at the guards, still tense and ready to pounce on Curtis at any moment “Stand down. This one here is with her.” Immediately they relaxed. “Welcome to Equestria Curtis. I hope your stay here wasn’t too troublesome. I apologize by the way, for what has happened. The guards didn’t know what to do and I feel, while at times it went a little too far, but they handled it very well.” “It’s no problem your majesty” Curtis replies simply. “They didn’t do anything that a good night’s sleep won’t heal.” “Are you sure? From what my reports say you took quite a beating” the solar princess asks, genuinely concerned.” “Yeah, like I said, nothing some sleep won’t fix…. And maybe some oran berries. Those guards hurt.” The smile quickly came back on the princess, “I would hope so. They were trained to take down higher beings…. Supposed to anyway” Her face went through a series of facial movements that I couldn’t make out. “But that is not what I wish to ask of you” she looks down on the two of us. “Will you help us recover our time gears and defeat the menace that stole them?” “But what if the one who took the time gears is doing this for good?” “Then we help them save our planet” the reply is simply put. I look over to Curtis, “Well? What do you say? Save the world or walk away?” “What do you think? We’re explorers!” He looks at Celestia. “We’re in”