//------------------------------// // Revealing Resounding Revelations // Story: Sunset Shimmer and the Land of Pokémon // by The Skyrunner //------------------------------// Early the next morning, the two girls and their Pokémon had reached Camphrier Town. It was a quiet little hamlet, and a small-ish mansion could be seen in the north end of the place. A Pokémon Center could be noted near the western end of town, its uniform red and blue coloration easy to spot amongst the rustic buildings. “Ah, it feels nice to be back in civilization!” Crystal exclaimed. “We’ve only been on the road for about half a day, if you don’t include us sleeping.” Sunset pointed out. In any case, Crystal was more than happy to run off towards the palace, shouting something on sightseeing while they were there. This left Sunset with Flandre and Esmeralda, the former munching on a berry form Sunset’s bag while the latter approached her. “I apologize for Crystal’s… uniqueness. She can be excitable at times.” The Gardevoir said telepathically. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve got a friend back home who’s remarkably similar to her, if you’d believe that.” Sunset replied, sipping water from the reusable canteen she bought. “I would be inclined to believe that, Sunset Shimmer.” Esmeralda replied, looking at the teen. “Especially since you aren’t from this world.” The two started to walk from where they stood, heading in the general direction of Crystal. Sunset suddenly spat out the water she was drinking. “H-How do you know that?!” She exclaimed, followed by a less loud, “Did you peek in my mind using your psychic powers or what?” Esmeralda held up a hand. “No, I never looked into your mind. I actually can’t do that. This telepathy is more like me speaking outward with my mind, rather than probing your brain. Anybody nearby can hear me.” The Pokémon smirked. “I’m just really attentive. If you recall, I was the first to awaken this morning, correct?” “Yeah, you woke me up shortly after dawn.” “I was busying myself before then cleaning up camp a little. I came across your journal, and I’m sorry, but curiosity got the best of me. I read the entry, and you said ‘this world’ in it, and you were sending it as a letter to a princess I’m sure doesn’t exist here.” Esmeralda sighed. “I’m also just a bit more attentive than Crystal. You didn’t know what I was at first sight. That pretty much doesn’t happen; everybody knows what a Pokémon is.” “Yeah, I guess that would be a dead giveaway…” Sunset said. She hung her head down as they walked, Flandre almost dropping her berry from the sudden movement. “Hey, Esmeralda? Would you mind keeping that a secret, at least for now? I don’t want to risk losing a friend I just made.” The Gardevoir smiled. “I suppose I could. Your past isn’t doing much harm, after all. But I recommend you do tell Crystal at some point.” With that, the Gardevoir soldiered on, headed at a slightly faster pace towards the mansion. Sunset was left both reassured and confused at the same time, but shrugged and moved to catch up with her new friend. Just outside the mansion, a small donation box was posted out, to collect money to keep the public space open and clean. Sunset checked her wallet, just to be on the safe side. She sighed as she looked upon its contents. “Sorry, but I barely have enough for me. Heh, reminds me of my first few days back in the other world.” She closed her almost empty wallet and headed into the building, attempting to find her friend. “Crystal? Esmeralda? Where are you two?” “Wahhaha!” Came an odd cry. It sounded like Crystal, and so Sunset ran over to where the sound seemed to come from. She rounded a corner, went up a flight of stairs, and saw the girl’s purple hair looking up at a tapestry. “It’s… It’s…” “Crystal, are you okay…?” “Oh! Sunset!” She almost screamed. “It’s simply horrible, darling! That tapestry is such a unique work of art, and there’s these large gashes all over it! I simply must fix it so that its beauty can be preserved!” The newer arrival looked up to the cloth in question, its picture showing a young knight from the days of old, a sword printed next to him with a blue cloth on its hilt. A large gash could be seen in the fabric, slicing the young knight’s picture in two. “Oh, don’t worry too much about that.” Sunset turned to face the new voice, only to see a boy only slightly older than her walk up. He was wearing a yellow suit, with the bottom half of the jacket cut off to reveal a white undershirt. His eyes were the color of summer grass, and his hair was a startlingly contrasting pink. A yellow scarf was tied around his neck, held in place by a blue crystal. His voice was smooth, though, one that gave a sense of calmness near him. “It’s been like that for several years now. The person who owns this place doesn’t want it fixed. He says it adds to the feel of the picture.” “Well, I guess that makes sense.” Sunset said, approaching him. “My name is Sunset, and Miss Melodramatic over there is Crystal. You seem to know a lot about old art, uhh…” “Oh! Right. My name is Nelson. A pleasure to meet you.” He shook the girl’s hand, smiling. “If by the Espurr on your head is any indication, are you a Pokémon trainer, by chance?” He asked. “Yeah, I guess you could call me one. I’m still rather new, though.” Sunset admitted, as Flandre simply looked at the newcomer with wide eyes. Crystal walked over and shook his hand as well. “It’s nice to see someone else here with a great sense of fashion, Mister Nelson.” She said. “I have to say, that suit is simply marvelous on you, it really brings out your eyes.” “Why thank you Miss… Crystal, was it? I think I’ve heard of you – you own a boutique in Lumiose, correct?” At her nod, he smiled. “I thought so. I do believe I’ve seen some of your designs before. Remarkable, really.” All of a sudden, it clicked in Sunset’s mind. “Wait, what did you mean by ‘someone else with a sense of fashion,’ Crystal?” “Sunset, the skirt and shirt I found you in was absolutely horrifying. Any other clothing store owner would have sent you away almost immediately for you poor taste.” She said flatly. “Ouch. Sounds like you weren’t from Lumiose, I guess.” Nelson said, wincing at the verbal lash Crystal gave. “Yeah, you could say that.” Sunset said, but didn’t speak any more about it. “Crystal, we really should get going, though. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and I’d like to get to Sinnoh as fast as possible.” “Oh, fine, darling. I just wanted to check out the sightseeing as we went, though. It’s not often I have the time to leave Lumiose, after all.” Crystal made to look at the tapestry one more time, before sighing and heading towards the stairs. “Wait, you two,” Nelson said somewhat abruptly. “You said you were headed to Sinnoh?” A nod from both girls, and a Gardevoir. “As it so happens, I am headed to Sinnoh, as I’m only on vacation here in Kalos. My father lives in Canalave city, you see. Would you mind terribly if I joined you on your trip?” He saw the girls’ unsure faces, Sunset more so nervous. “I’m a good cook.” “DEAL.” Sunset said, shaking his hand faster than Crystal could react. She was not a good chef in any sense of the word, as last night’s dinner was any example. Crystal and Esmeralda were kind enough to eat it without complaint, but Flandre did what everyone there wanted to – she spat out the food and dumped out what was left into the campfire. She had then jumped into Sunset’s bag and pulled out a few berries. “Well, then I guess that takes care of that. My Pokémon are in the Pokémon Center, so if we could just head there, and I could get them, we can be on our way.” The party group agreed on this plan, and so walked over to the red-roofed building. “I’ll just be a minute.” “No worries. I was thinking about going over our supplies anyway.” Sunset said, while Crystal went over to the shop in the corner of the Center. Digging through her bag, she regarded the multitude of potions and other medicines she bought before, as well as the measly food she luckily won’t have the chance to ruin for at least a while. Her cooking equipment was still in almost-new condition as well. On her belt she found the Pokédex the professor gave her. Curious, she looked through its database. She found that almost all the entries were filled in, but there were some that were blanked out. Maybe they were rare species, or just hard to find or good at camouflage. She glanced over the entries for Gardevoir and Espurr, familiarizing herself with what her friends can do. She also saw that Pokémon could ‘evolve.’ She assumed it was some kind of metamorphosis. Sunset glanced down at Flandre, knowing now that eventually she’ll evolve into something called a Meowstic, and she’ll have better control over psychic powers. “It’s like I’m a teacher for the Pokémon…” She muttered to herself, filling up with nostalgia as her own days as a student filled her mind. She smiled, remembering all of the good times she had with Celestia. Now that she could go back to Equestria, she really should go and apologize to her old mentor. The thought of such crossed her mind, and she nodded to herself, promising to do so when she got back. But for now, she had a student of her own, of sorts. Before long, Nelson returned, with the addition of four Pokéballs on his belt. “Shall we get going?” He asked, before offering his hand to the sitting Sunset. She accepted his grip and he helped her up, and the two of them had to drag Crystal away from a few fashion magazines. Esmeralda simply sighed in annoyance at her trainer’s antics, and caving in and giving the clerk the money to buy the magazine. Satisfied, the three humans and two Pokémon exited the Center, headed on their way down Route 7. Nightfall came sooner rather than later, and a small camp was set up. Crystal and Esmeralda retired to their tent, and Sunset chose to put her sleeping bag closer to the fire than last night, to warm up next to the breeze coming from the river next to the route. Nelson set up his own sleeping bag on the opposite side of the fire, after cleaning up the remains of dinner. He had gotten strong compliments from the girls, and the one Pokémon in the group who he could understand. He slipped away from the campsite, heading to a small area of trees nearby. Looking around to see if anyone was nearby, he pulled the blue crystal from his neck, and opened it up. Inside was a picture of a boy and a girl, smiling. Both of them had the same pink hair and green eyes, and below them were two marks, one for each of them. The girl had a heart with a flower behind it, and the boy had a picture of a small cookie on a baking sheet. “Ah, sister.” Nelson said, sighing. “Your projections were right. The research team was completely correct. There is a magical anomaly here.” He smiled, closing the small charm and retying his scarf with it. “And it- no, she is just what we were relooking for, all these years. We’ve done some pretty bad stuff since we got here, but now…” He pulled out a small device, one that had two bars on it. One of them was empty, always has been, but the other was half-full. As he turned, the bar filled as it faced Sunset’s sleeping form. “Now we might just be able to make this plan of ours work.”