//------------------------------// // Prologue: Hoop Hoppers // Story: My Little Pokémon: Hoop Hoppers // by Azure Ravenscroft //------------------------------// Prologue: Hoop Hoppers In the small town of Ponyville, the impressive, crystalline structure that is the Castle of Friendship stood glistening in the midday sun. Inside sat Princess Twilight Sparkle, along with three of her five closest friends: Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, though the last one was currently jumping between the few remaining unopened boxes of books that were still in Twilight’s study. All four of them were in the study, each having found a book to keep them interested while they had a break on one of Ponyville’s less eventful days. It had been just over a month since Twilight’s last visit to the human world and her and Sunset Shimmer had been keeping in touch via Sunset’s old diary, which Twilight had since modified so she could write back to Sunset. She had been telling Twilight about all the things she had learned from her new friends, much like the friendship reports Twilight used to send Princess Celestia. One particular report concerned how Pinkie Pie had introduced Sunset to a ‘video game’ called Pokémon, a game in which you play a character who captures and battles many creatures known as Pokémon. It seemed an unusual game to the Princess of Friendship, originally finding the concept rather barbaric for a children’s game but Sunset cleared up the alicorn’s original confusion soon after, explaining how the creatures didn’t really get hurt. The game seemed to be very popular with humans of all ages in that world, many fully grown humans also taking a strangely scientific approach to the games, or ‘forgetting how to really enjoy the games’ as Pinkie had supposedly put it. Pokémon seemed to make a second appearance in Sunset’s reports, with her saying she had made amends with some of the other students at Canterlot High School through the game. It’s amazing how such a simple thing could make up for what she had done to them, Twilight thought to herself as she put the diary down to take a look around at her friends. Rarity and Fluttershy were sat together on a large sofa, flicking through the old fashion magazines Celestia had sent Rarity. Rarity had hoped she could find something vintage she may be able to bring back, and Fluttershy was happy to read the articles with her friend. Two of her other friends, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had gone home after finding books for themselves to read. Applejack had found some old farming books, one written by one of the original Apple family who first moved to Ponyville, so she had borrowed that to show everyone at the upcoming Apple Family reunion. Rainbow Dash had found an original Daring Doo book, but couldn’t get comfy enough to reread it in the castle, so she had flown home to her clouds. Pinkie Pie, however, was nowhere to be found, until Twilight looked back down at Sunset’s diary. “Heeeeeey, Twilight,” Pinkie sang from between the diary and Twilight, who promptly jumped back and screamed, “what’s a ‘Pokémon’?” “Pinkie Pie, don’t scare ponies like that,” Twilight scolded her, “why were you even there?” “Duh, I was reading the diary, silly-filly,” the bubbly mare replied matter-of-factly. “Of course,” Twilight deadpanned. “So, what are they?” Pinkie asked again. “From what Sunset’s told me,” Twilight began after straightening her mane to something respectable, “they’re creatures in a game that humans play. You, as the main character, have to catch and battle these creatures so they get stronger. Apparently the Pokémon aren’t hurt by the battles, at least not enough that they’re seriously injured. There are lots of species that all look very different and have different powers; I think Sunset said there were over 700 since the latest games came out.” Pinkie Pie looked more excited the more Twilight spoke, which Twilight noticed, “The Pinkie Pie in that world really likes these games, too,” Twilight finished with a smile. “Well she must know what she’s on about then,” Pinkie beamed, “she must have a Pinkie sense like mine, only she found cool stuff, but I don’t think humans have tails so how would she know when it was a twitchy tail, double blink combo, or what abou-“ Twilight let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, “Thanks, Rarity.” “My pleasure, darling,” Rarity said calmly as she extracted her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth, following up by wiping said hoof on said Pinkie, wrinkling her nose in disgust at what was on her hoof. “That ‘game’ sounds very odd, Twilight. Are you sure it’s filly-friendly?” “I’m sure, Rarity,” Twilight reassured her, “I think you’d like it, Fluttershy,” she called over to her friend who had been listening in like Rarity had, “you get to make so many friends and look after them all.” “Oh that would be lovely,” Fluttershy sighed, “I can’t imagine making that many new animal friends, I can see why Sunset said it is popular.” “Imagine if we were Pokémon and all had to fight each other to see who the best was,” Pinkie blurted out, “then, when we were all done, I could throw a Pokémon party.” “Of course, Pinkie,” Rarity smiled at her crazy friend, “whatever you say.” Before Rarity could re-join Fluttershy at the magazines, Spike, Twilight’s number one assistant and dragon brother, ran into the room, panting heavily. Before he could catch his breath, he tried to blurt out his message, “Twilight… new room… magic hoop… quick…” “Calm down, Spike,” Twilight said as she flew across the room to Spike, placing one of her forehooves on his shoulder, “deep breaths, and then you can tell us what’s happened.” Doing as instructed, Spike took several deep – and dramatic – breaths before trying again, “I was in the basement-“ “-the dungeon!” Pinkie whispered, appearing next to him. “Fine, the dungeon,” Spike decided not to question the pink mare, “and there was this hoop floating in the air, then colours were spinning in it and it sounded like somepony was laughing at me.” “Come on, Spike, I’m sure it wasn't that bad,” Twilight comforted the baby dragon, “let’s go see, girls.” Spike lead the way with the four mares walking – or bouncing in Pinkie’s case – behind him. It wasn’t long before they came to the stairs down into the ‘dungeon’, and before long they were staring into the strange hoop. From a distance, it just looked like a large golden hoop, about the height of Princess Celestia, but as they got closer the dark swirling colours could be seen. The inside was mostly black but with hints of purple and specks of gold. “Extraordinary,” Twilight gasped, “how can this be? We’ve explored every inch of this castle and this has never been here before.” She thought to herself for a moment, “Spike, can you bring Sunset’s diary please, I need to see if anything like this has shown up in her world.” “On it, Twi,” Spike saluted before running back to the study. “Um, Twilight, wh-where do you think it came from?” Fluttershy stuttered. “Indeed, dear,” Rarity was just as curious as her friend, “something like this doesn’t just appear.” “Oh, oh oh oh, pick me!” Pinkie shouted, waving her hoof in the air like a student trying to get their teacher’s attention. “Yes, Pinkie,” Twilight played along. “Maybe it was Discord, he might be playing a prank on us,” Pinkie gasped at what she just said, as though she hadn’t thought of it. “Oh no,” Fluttershy commented, “Discord promised me he wouldn’t, and besides, he’s staying in Canterlot for a while.” Twilight and Rarity nodded, but Pinkie seemed disappointed that she wasn’t right. As she looked into the hoop, Twilight thought she saw something, so she decided to get a closer look and took a couple of steps closer. The others followed too, also wanting to see what had intrigued Twilight. As they stepped closer, the mares started to make out a shape in the colours, the purples seeming to join together. “Let me see,” Pinkie giggled as she pushed in front of the others, her head now inches away from the hoop. “Pinkie Pie, be careful,” Twilight warned her, “we don’t know if it’s safe.” “You worry too much, Twilight,” Pinkie stuck her tongue out at her friend, “what’s the worst that could happen?” “Please don’t say that, Pinkie,” Rarity asked, “you might have jinxed yourself.” “Nah, see, the face in the hoop is smiling,” she pointed to the colours where, somehow, a light blue face had formed and was indeed smiling. It had large purple hair and a long purple beard, with very sharp looking canine teeth lining its mouth, not to mention the gigantic spikes either side of its head. As the face laughed at them, a deep booming laugh, Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity all jumped back screaming, but Pinkie was still facing the mirror laughing back at the face, a much lighter laugh. “Don’t you remember what Granny Pie told me?” Pinkie asked the girls light-heartedly, “You just have to-“ But before she could start singing, her head was pulled into the hoop, causing all the girls to cry out, “Pinkie!” Twilight reached out to grab Pinkie’s barrel, but she too started to get pulled in, so Rarity grabbed Twilight and Fluttershy grabbed hold of Rarity. It made little difference, though, even when Fluttershy flapped her wings in the opposite direction, they were still being pulled in behind Pinkie. By the time they were pulled in as far as Twilight’s hooves on Pinkie’s back, Spike returned with Sunset’s diary. Still carrying the book in his claws, he ran over to the girls and tried to pull on Fluttershy with one hand while holding the book in his other. The unexpected sensation caused Fluttershy to flinch, stopping her wings from flapping and holding tighter to Rarity. A domino effect began, and soon no resistance was offered by anypony against the hoop, and soon they were all pulled in. Before anypony could utter ‘Buck’, they were all floating in something that reminded Twilight and Spike of the rift between Equestria and the human world, only a lot darker and a lot more floating rings than they remembered. Twilight noticed that all of them seemed to be floating together and in the same direction, so that relieved a bit of worry that they would be split up. “Is everypony okay?” Twilight shouted in the silence, a lot louder than she anticipated. “You mean apart from being upside down and floating Celestia knows where,” Rarity moaned, “never better, darling.” “Pinkie, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. Both mares nodded their confirmation. Before she could check on Spike, he tapped her shoulder and pointed to the side of the mares, “What is THAT!?” he cried. The others followed Spike’s claw, gasping as they saw the face from earlier, only now it had a body to match. Six three-clawed arms floated at its sides, next to a blue and purple body with two blue legs growing out the bottom and a long dragon-like tail sprouting from the back, also the same light blue. In the middle of the body was a ring similar to the ones the girls could see around them, only much smaller. The creature folded its three pairs of arms across its body and laughed the same deep laugh as before, causing Twilight to gather the others in her magic so they could huddle in fear. “HOOOOOP!” the monster bellowed. “I-I think he wants us out of his hoops, girls,” Rarity gulped as the monster began to approach them, bellowing again. Twilight looked around her for the ring they fell through, but they all looked the same. Deciding anywhere would be better than this void with that thing, Twilight used her magic to pull the five of them to the nearest hoop, hoping it would take them home. Seeing them move towards one of the hoops, the creature stopped closing in on them, laughing once more. The mares and Spike paid him no heed, opting to focus on their escape route. As they neared the exit, Twilight called out to her friends, “Hold tight, everypony!” All five of them closed their eyes as they crossed the threshold of the portal, none knowing where they would be brought out.