To be honest, Clara was almost expecting something to happen as the group made their way through town. She waited for a cry for help, or for a Pokémon to come bursting through the other side of some building's wall. Anything that seemed out of place or that was inevitably going to go south. After all, these last few days had been hectic, and she wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if some stupid event reared its ugly head in an effort to ruin her day.
Thankfully, fate had decided to be merciful for once and spare the group of any unnecessary interruptions as they treaded through the market square.
Looking around, Clara was surprised to see a lot more ponies interacting with their new extraterrestrial neighbors as if they were part of Equestrian society to begin with. Clara couldn't help but smile as she observed a pony couple sitting together as they watched their daughter play with a Chansey, or when the parent's expressions turned to one of shock when the filly climbed into the Chansey's empty egg pouch. Of course the Chansey didn't mind, but it still made Clara giggle when the parent's began to overreact and attempt to remove their daughter, all the while apologizing to the egg Pokémon.
"Find something funny?" Saul chuckled from beside his mate, grabbing the amused Sylveon's attention.
"I think that it's mostly the fact that a little over a week ago, this town was plunged into chaos as the Pokémon made the debut and accidently terrorized the locals. Which quickly spiraled downward into a near all out brawl from both sides." Clara smiled before gesturing to their surroundings. "But now look at it. It's like that dispute never happened, it's as if the Pokémon were never strangers to Equestria in the first place."
Saul gave a small chuckle as well. "Ya, it's amazing how different this place is from Earth. Everyone's just so… excepting here."
Clara nodded. "It's a trait that greatly separates humans from ponies, no matter how many different ways I look at it." Clara hummed as she pressed herself against Saul's side.
Saul smiled and returned her affection with a soft lick on her cheek, eliciting a soft giggle from the intertwining Pokémon.
"Hey sis!" Leaf suddenly called out from the front of the group. "Look at this!"
Following Leaf's gaze, Melon looked over at the spot that had caught her sister's attention. Half expecting it to be something minor like some lost change, Melon was surprised to see a sizable puddle of purple goo with green spots, lying in-between a couple of bushes near the side of the road.
"What is that? Some kind of Pokémon?" Melon questioned mostly to herself as she leaned in closer to inspect the blob. Meanwhile, Streak was leaning over her shoulder to see what the fuss was about.
"It looks like a gob of purple bread dough." The Stallion commented before making room for the two Eeveelutions to squeeze.
"It's a Goomy." Clara quickly informed with a worried tone. "And it looks severely dehydrated."
"Poor thing!" Melon gasped before reaching into her saddle bag and pulling out a canister of water before carefully pouring some water into the lid of the canister and setting it down beside the Goomy. "Here you go little guy."
The Goomy didn't show any sign of responding as it continued to lay there like a shriveling worm on a sidewalk, worrying the mare greatly.
"It's not responding." Melon said worryingly.
"I got an idea." Said Clara, who was now picking up the cup of water with one of her ribbons. She edged the cup of water closer towards the soft tissue Pokémon, before dumping all of cups contents onto the Goomy.
"Hey!" Leaf glared at Clara. "What's the big idea? dumping water on him like that!"
Clara ignored the filly as she began to pour another cup and repeat the process, further agitating the filly. Thankfully, Saul finally got involved and stopped the filly before filling them in on Clara's plan.
"You see, Goomy's normally live in damp, dark caves in order to keep themselves moist, because their bodies are mostly made out of water to begin with." Saul said as he now looked at his mate who had taken the whole canister from Melon, and was now dumping it on the little Pokémon. "What Clara's trying to do is help it regain its moisture by pouring all that water on it, since Goomy's absorb almost all their water through their skin anyway."
"Oh…" Leaf settled down before adding sheepishly. "Sorry."
Saul smiled. "It's alright, you didn't know."
Their little conversations was shortly cut off as a little groan filled their ears. Everyone rested their eyes on the Goomy, who was now looking a lot better. it's once saggy body was now firm and in place, with a lot of color already returning to its features. Despite its now healthy features, it still appeared to be out cold.
Clara sighed as she twisted the cap back onto the now empty water canister. "It should be fine now, but it was more dehydrated than I thought. It's probably gonna be out for a while."
"So what do we do with it?" Asked Streak, learning forward and lightly pocking the soft tissue Pokémon with his hoof, only to retreat it with a film of slime now coating his hoof.
"Let's take it with us!" Leaf exclaimed in excitement.
Melon looked like she wanted to object, but instead opted for a sigh. "Fine, it can come with us."
"Yay!"
"But I'm not finished yet." Melon held up a hoof. "Once it wakes up, we'll make sure it's alright before bring right back here."
"Boooooo!"
Streak coughed awkwardly. "Anyway, we should get going. We don't want to keep the mayor waiting any longer than we already have."
Agreeing with the stallion, the group continued their way towards town hall. Hopefully without anymore interruptions.
However, fate had other plans in store. Because shortly after the group had turned a corner and were out a site, a frantic looking Vaporeon stuck its head out the bush before scanning the area and retreating back into the foliage.
*~*
Being the Mayor of Little Brook was no easy task, especially with all the Pokémon that had been dumped so suddenly on their planet by a being who claimed himself to be a god. In fact, the mayor's recent rise in her stress levels was probably not all that different from any other mayor, king, or princess that resided on Equis. And while it was bittersweet knowing that she wasn't the only pony having to deal with the recent rise in political debates and arguments, she still couldn't help but feel cheated by the sudden appearance of the Pokémon.
Mayor Wax Stamp sighed. "Why did this sort of thing have to happen during my term as mayor?" She thought sourly to herself. "My main goal for becoming mayor of this town was to keep the more greedy nobles from exploiting this towns resources and corrupting its political system. But, now with these Pokémon showing up, I have little doubt that they won't use the damage that they caused as a means to spread doubt about my leadership."
Wax stamp let out another audible sigh, catching the attention of her secretary, Gentle Breeze.
"Is something the matter miss Stamp?" Gentle Breeze asked in concern as she looked up from the stack of papers that she had been working on.
Gentle Breeze was a sweet mare, one who could always cheer up Wax Stamp whenever she was in a slump with little to no effort at all. Breeze was a young earth pony that Wax Stamp had the pleasure of being introduced too shortly after being elected mayor. The young mare, at the time, was just looking for some college credit after she had enrolled into one of Canterlot's many prestige schools. Well, that was over four years ago… Now, Breeze worked full time at the office as Wax Stamp's personal secretary, managing her meetings and filing away extra work, and despite all the extra work, she was almost always able to keep herself in a cheerful attitude.
Wax Stamp looked over at the Turquoise mare with her tired baggy eyes, which seemingly reflected off Breeze's mint green eyes.
Stamp let out a heavy sigh, "I just have a lot on my plate dear, what with all these Pokémon suddenly appearing and causing a ruckus amongst many of the nobles and business corporations that rely on our town's resources. Heck, I'm getting nonstop complaints from the local traders that have lost business ever since the Pokémon had arrived. Complaints like "A Pokémon has contaminated the shipment", or "One of the rocks suddenly came to life!", or my favorite, "They make me feel really uncomfortable, so I'm just going to wait till they are sent back to whatever dimension they came from." Wax Stamp huffed heavily at the last part, still finding it hard to believe that one of their lead shipping companies had taken a temporary leave of absence without so much as a warning.
As soon as the mayor was finished with her rant, Breeze took that as an initiative to get up from her seat, and give the major a light hug. Wax Stamp flinched in surprise at the sudden contact, but quickly got over it as the stress she had been keeping pent up all morning seemingly evaporated into thin air.
"Praise Celestia for that special talent of yours." the older mare sighed in relief, "I can't imagine retaining a shred of sanity without you."
The younger mare chuckled as she broke the hug. "It's kind of ironic that a pony that can relieve stress is working such a stressful job." Breeze said as she looked back at her cutie mark, which dictated a gentle gust of wind blowing through a patch of grass. "But I like it here regardless… besides, I don't want to wake up one morning and read in the newspaper that a you were arrested for shaving a certain noble's cats.
For the first time that day, the mayor smiled.
"Oh, c'mon. I know you thought about doing it too." Wax Stamp chuckled. "After all, what kind of stallion brings three angry cats to a business meeting?"
Breeze snickered as she leaned towards one of Stamp's ears, "It's probably because he couldn't get any real pussy." She whispered.
Both mares burst forth in a fit of laughter at the lewd joke, tears both running down their faces as they struggled for breath. That was another thing that Stamp loved about Breeze, her ability to adjust to another's sense of humor, as Breeze wasn't usually the type of mare who would make such lewd jokes.
It took the pair a minute to steady their breathing and calm down from the joke, with the exception of the sudden rebound of laughter that would spontaneously explode without warning whenever they thought they had finally calm down.
"You always know how to make my days bearable, breeze." The older mare wheezed as she wiped the tears away with one of her forelegs.
The younger mare smiled as she copied the mayor's actions in making herself more presentable. "It's no problem, honestly." Chuckled breeze as she sat back at her desk, prepared to get back to paperwork.
However, as soon as Breeze gazed upon the documents on her desk, her eyes opened wide in mild horror. The mare now practically pressing the document to her muzzle as she looked at it frantically.
"Breeze, dear. What's got you so frazzled all of a sudden?" Wax Stamp asked in concern, anxious as to what was making her secretary acting like a frightened field mouse all of a sudden.
"I lost one of my contacts!" The mare gasped as she jumped out of her seat and onto the floor, intent to find the lost eye piece.
"Is that all?" Wax Stamp questioned with a tilt of her head. "Why not just use your spare glasses in your desk?"
"Because they look horrible!"
Stamp could understand Breeze's reaction towards her glasses, as she wouldn't want to wear those big clunky frames either. But Breeze was a young mare in her prime, so unlike Stamp, breeze could pull off the 'cute' glasses look - that some stallions seemed to adore - with little to no effort at all. However, that attention is also what caused Breeze to switch to contacts, as she felt intimidated by the eyes of so many ponies.
"I know that's just an excuse, Breeze, and that the real reason that you don't want to wear them is because you don't want the extra attention." Stamp chuckled as she began to scan the floor for the lost contact.
Breeze didn't answer, and continued to remain silent in her search before a loud knock coming from the entrance of the office door.
"Who is it?" Stamp asked out loud as she got up off the floor, and made her way towards the door.
"It's me, Melon stripe." Replied the melon mare from behind the door. "We're here to see the translator from Canterlot."
"Oh, a moment please!" Stamp replied before looking down at here secretary. "C'mon, Breeze. We can search for your contacts after the meeting. But for now, just bear with the glasses."
Breeze paused before letting out a heavy sigh. She then got up off the floor and made her way towards her desk where the large pair of glasses awaited within it. With a quick tug of her hoof, she quickly opened the drawer and pulled out her glasses. She hesitated as she slid them on, even pausing once or twice to cast a quick glance across the carpet, hoping to be lucky enough to spot the missing eye wear. Unfortunately, no such luck.
Stamp just chuckled at the young mare's antics as she looked her over. "Wow Breeze, I forgot how cute you looked with those on."
Breeze just blushed in embarrassment as Stamp opened the door.
*~*
"Oh! he's so slimy!" Leaf said in glee as she glanced back at the unconscious Goomy glued to her back.
Despite the group's small delay in finding the dehydrated Goomy, they were surprisingly making good time as they fast-walked towards town hall. Although, they did have to stop now and then to give Leaf a short rest, as it was physically exhausting, even for Leaf, to carry around a Pokémon on her back that was pretty much over a quarter of her body size. And while it would only make sense for the others to take turns in carrying the soft tissue Pokémon, they were somewhat reluctant to have a giant slug slime them up. Thankfully, Leaf didn't mind in the slightest. In fact, it looked like the filly was enjoying herself despite the exhaustion and sweat dripping from her brow.
Clara glanced over at the Goomy sitting atop the filly's back, which was now looking much better than it did when they first found it.
She took note as the Goomy seemed to unconsciously relax on top Leaf's back, letting it's soft tissue body sag down the barrel of the filly as slime secreted from the Pokémon. If she had to take a guess, the Goomy's body was probably looking for more moisture to fuel its own body as it slept soundly. And what Clara did know about Goomys, is that they like to live in warm, damp environments, which perfectly described your average swamp. However, with no swamp around for miles, the Goomy had to settle for Leaf. Her pumping heart and flowing sweat providing the ideal source of warmth and moisture for the Goomy.
Clara was pulled away from her thoughts when she felt a snout gently nudge one of her ears.
"When do you think we can get that Pokémon off my sister?" Whispered Melon as she glanced over at her giddy, little sibling. "If that thing keeps spreading more mucous on her, she's going to look like a giant, furry booger!"
"We can't take it off her right now." Said Saul, as he joined in the little conversation. "It has to get off her back willingly."
"Why can't we just take it off?"
Clara sighed, "See the slime covering your sister?" The sylveon lightly gestured to the still unaware filly. "That slime is too thick. If we were to tear the Goomy off her now, Leaf would probably lose all the fur on her back."
"Then what do we do?!" Melon harshly whispered, fearful of what could happen to her little sister.
Clara shrugged, "We wait till it wakes up, where it can remove the slime on its own without hurting Leaf."
Melon looked like she wanted to object, but otherwise remained silent as she gnawed on her lower lip while casting quick glances at Leaf. Her internal "Big Sister" practically screaming at her to find a quicker solution to remedy the problem, but Melon knew better than that. She knew that trying to rush something like this wouldn't benefit anyone, especially since she didn't have any experience dealing with sentient slugs.
Melon's train of thought was abruptly interrupted as she felt Streak's side press against hers, the stallion making a clear attempt to comfort his marefriend.
"You don't have to always think about the worst case scenario." Streak said with a small smile. "I'm sure the little guy doesn't even know what he's doing. After all, he's out cold like a rock during a blizzard." Streak directed Melon's attention back towards the still giddy filly. "Besides, Leaf's having a blast. There's no sense in ruining her fun now."
Melon smiled at Streak's words, his sense of logic providing comfort to her muddled mind.
Clara and Saul both smiled as they looked back to find both earth ponies walking close to each other's sides, in what they could only assume was the pony equivalence of holding hands. Despite the motions being just them simply walking close to one another, it was still cute to watch as Melon leaned her head over into Streak's, the mare clearly getting comfortable with her current position.
But alas, as they all have learned all too well, good moments don't seem to last in this town, as Leaf alerted the group with her bubbly voice.
"We're here!" Leaf said merrily as she stood in front of a pair of large, oak doors.
Clara and Saul stopped shortly after Leaf, the two Eeveelutions now taking in the grand scale of the town hall. And they had to admit, it was an impressive town hall if they've ever seen one.
The building was tall and rustic, made from a compilation of both wood and iron workings that beautifully intertwined with one another. The walls of the building had been painted in a bright shade a white, which was pretty bold since dirt and other stains could easily show; however, the walls seemed to remain dirt free, almost as if filth had never tainted its surface. Another feature that caught the Pokémon's attention was the bright blue roof that covered the surface of the building, making it seem like the roof was part of the sky. The only reason for the roofs current visibly being the gold inlays that laid in-between the tiles of the roof, each sliver of gold seemingly giving off its own individual glow.
Clara and Saul both whistled in unison.
"Color me impressed." Clara commented as she scanned the architecture in front of her. "I didn't think I would find a more impressive building than the ones back in the Kalos region. And that's saying a lot itself, since I was born there."
"No kidding." Saul added. "Even Kalos's top engineers couldn't keep something in this pristine of condition for more than a few years."
"Well, we have the enchantments to thank for that." Said Streak, now joining in on their little conversation.
"Enchantments?" Asked Clara as both Eeveelutions tilted their head in confusion.
Streak nodded. "Yes, enchantments. You see the gold in-between each of the roof's tiles?" Streak began as he directed a hoof at the roof. "Each sliver of metal is actually pieces of enchanted orichalcum, a special recipe of the glimmer family. Griffons often use this type of metal for their elite armor and weaponry, but the glimmer family uses a special method of distillery, extracting the metal's magical properties so that we can use it in other ways."
"What kinds of ways?" Saul asked curiously, beating Clara to the question this time.
"Well, for here, we use the enchanted orichalcum to strengthen the building's integrity, keeping it safe from most elements as well as providing superb protection to the structure's foundation."
"Seems more like a bunker than a town hall."
Streak shrugged. "That's because it's both. We use it mostly for politics and whatnot, but in the case that some sort of disaster were to occur, we were to evacuate to the town hall."
"Wait, so this is where all the townsfolk came to hide when the Pokémon first arrived?" Asked Clara.
Streak nodded. "Pretty much. But enough dilly dallying, we're scheduled to meet the mayor inside."
The two Pokémon and pony paused when they heard a grunt. Looking over their shoulders. they spotted Melon trying to clean the Goomy slime off her sister with a handkerchief. Only for the handkerchief to become stuck to the filly as well.
"Point taken. We don't want Melon accidently sticking anymore things to Leaf either." Clara deadpanned as she walked towards the large pair of oak doors before gently pushing them open with her ribbons, thankfully catching the attention of the distraught sister and her goofy sibling.
"Wait for us!" Leaf cried out.
"Not like that you're not!" Melon shouted as she ran after the slimy filly.