Inside the laser, a bright light glowed.
"Did you really think that would do anything to me?" The laser suddenly stopped and compressed itself into an orb, which began to send rainbow lights out from it. "Even at your full power you were unable to defeat me, and this large fraction of your power was a siren song of weakening you."
"That is if you can beat me. But really, a disco ball?" Shadow Discord laughed. The ball exploded, sending green acid all over which stopped before hitting the ground, reformed all together and turned blue as it became a Vaporeon.
"I always have enjoyed rainbows. I've noticed your handiwork, and I've always had someone deal with it, to make it seem coincidental, turning a blind eye to the signs of your return. I came down for the reasons that I didn't think that these combatants could defeat you, and I could not afford to let you win. In short..." Arceus's ring turned blue, as did part of its body. Along with the watery Vaporeon, it used Hydro Pump to knock Shadow Discord around. "I came because I can't afford not to care anymore."
"Will you be quiet?!" Shadow Discord turned the water into a massive steel spike and tried to run Arceus through with it.
"The longer you've been growing your power, the less subtle you've gotten with your power." Arceus turned silver as it rammed the spike head on, shattering it. The pieces each became small Honedge which rushed Shadow Discord. In response, it created a massive bubble, trapping the Honedge. The Honedge each became winged fireballs, which tracked Arceus around.
"Burn and suffer, Arceus!" Shadow Discord roared even as the fireballs were turned into bricks which encased it inside a sphere. The bricks then turned into a humongous bowling ball, which rolled right towards Arceus.
"The Shadow Pokemon, I almost ignored. The humans could have done it, I believed." The giant ball shrunk into a seed which fell to the ground. A large stem shot up and burst into a flower right in front of Shadow Discord.
"Really? I must have done something clever with it. Let's stop stalling then, shall we?" The flower became a catapult which launched massive rocks before disappearing. The rocks froze in front of Arceus.
"After all, I was honestly a little surprised to find that the machines only worked because you were messing with them." The rocks slammed together and became a large frying pan, which swung at Shadow Discord. It passed through as a hole melted through the center and the rest molded into a cannon.
"You know, I stopped listening once you started talking." The cannon fired a large net before turning into a cage and appearing around Arceus. Arceus teleported out of both and both net and cage became a long rope.
"When I found that Entei, Raikou, and Suicune were affected, I suspected that something was wrong." The rope shot out at Shadow Discord, wrapping around it until it turned into a Rayquaza and flew right at Arceus. It tried to bite it before turning into confetti. The confetti began swirling around in a tornado that was wrapping around Shadow Discord.
"What part of I stopped listening have you forgotten?" Shadow Discord grabbed the open end of the twister and held it up towards Arceus. It suddenly began expelling flames.
"After all, how did those three get captured? Even then, how did they fail to escape?" The flames became a Moltres, which turned and flew at Shadow Discord. Moltres was dispelled back into a large fire, which quickly became a stone fist.
"What part of I stopped listening do you not understand?" The fist was launched at Arceus, where it broke into small pieces. These pieces began circling Arceus.
"After a trainer not only defeated those making them, but destroyed every piece of technology except for one, I assumed it was over." The stones flew at Shadow Discord, one after another. Snarling, Shadow Discord caught every single one.
"Are you choosing to ignore me? I don't care about your reasons!" It threw them around Arceus, and they broke open creating smoke all around Arceus. Soon after, the smoke solidified into an orb of steel.
"When Shadow Pokemon returned, and Shadow Moltres, Shadow Articuno, and Shadow Zapdos, there was more going on than any knew." The orb shattered into glass, and the shards flew straight for Shadow Discord.
"As I have already told you, I KNOW ALL THIS!" The glass disintegrated into tiny bees which swarmed Arceus. As they closed in, each of them exploded into a small firework.
"It was XD001 that showed me that you were involved. It had your marks all over it." The embers from the fireworks each began closing in on Shadow Discord, but were stopped and began moving in a ring around Shadow Discord.
"Why do you insist on telling me things I already know or could easily guess?" The spinning ring became pure fire, moving to around Arceus and closing in.
"After that, I began looking for more of your work. The Bittercold was the final proof that you were back at full power." Arceus backed out of the ring of fire, letting it keep spinning until it changed into a speaker. The speaker fired a massive sound wave at Shadow Discord, knocking it backward.
Shadow Discord growled. "Yes, I do believe that the Bittercold was some of my finest work." The speaker crumpled into a massive ball which launched at Arceus. The ball never reached it, instead dismantling itself piece by piece until it had completely disappeared.
"With that knowledge, I went to try to get rid of you once and for all. But you had also absorbed the power of the Sky Prism and broke it after you locked me out of Wish Park. I discovered it was the sort of prevention that, while I could force my way through it, it would weaken me enough for you to possibly remove me as an obstacle to your plans. After I removed myself from the Pokeparks, I found that you were influencing the actions and thoughts not only of every Pokemon in the Pokeparks, but of many Pokemon on different parts of the world. Therefore, I went to go find those that could easily break through your corruptive power. Finding the best candidates were not, in fact, Pokemon, I sent an exploration and rescue team to act as the ambassadors and as the introduction to Pokemon. However, another creature was trying to bring something from another world to the one I had my eye on, and as my power increased the spatial link between the two planets, it became more able to start pulling in random Pokemon. I was unwilling to stop this, as this would increase the knowledge of different kinds of Pokemon. I was also sure that you were using your power to send Legendary Pokemon to the other planet in an attempt to cause a distraction. To ensure nothing too disastrous happened, I sent Mew over, expecting it to act as friendly as it always does. I was forced to sent Deoxys and Jirachi when they were getting too close to finding you. If they did, you would have surely tried to remove them as possible threats. Given how Deoxys functions, especially in Defense Forme, almost anything you could use as an attack would not work, and it could even stand up to your Corruption Blast for minutes at a time; certainly something you would not want to put up with. You then sent a large percentage of your power into the mind of a creature with similar abilities to you, and pretended to be said creature to try and remove those I was going to use to get to you. You may have succeeded before I was able to stop you, but the call for help got the attention of the Legendary Pokemon here, and even called forth the one Pokemon I considered sending to stop you. Because of all of this, I did not intrude until they did, in fact, need my help." Arceus nodded. "And now that you have shown yourself, I can fight you. And to answer your question, I've been saying all of that so that all affected could learn why all this happened so that it will be easier for them to stop you."
Shadow Discord froze in shock. "You... You... ARGH!" It moved to attack the onlookers, but hit a barrier.
"Your fight is with me. And I believe it is time to enact Judgment." Shadow Discord snapped, but nothing happened. In a panic, it tried to fly up but hit the barrier again. "What, surprised that you can't escape? Victini, what is the name of that one spell in that game you play online with others that prevents teleportation?"
"Oh, you mean Grottoes and Goodra?" Victini started laughing. "You used a Dimensional Anchor?"
"With higher intensity, but the same basic idea. You thought I never paid attention when you started going on and on about this game or that one? But now is not the time for that." An orange orb grew above Arceus before shooting into the air where it burst into several orange streaks that arced down and into Shadow Discord. It took the hit hard, but still attempted to fight back. Arceus continued the assault while looking back. "Charge up your Elements and hit me with them."
"What? That won't help!" Twilight yelled up at it.
"Yes, it will. I am able to absorb the energy of the Elements of Harmony and can use that to power my Judgment with the Harmony Magic to break through the Chaos Magic allowing it to survive against me." Arceus said, far calmer than it should have been.
"If you're so certain, then alright." The Elements fired another Harmony Beam, but this time it hit Arceus. Arceus began to glow with rainbow light.
"Judgement will be unleashed." Arceus whispered, almost silently. The assault stopped momentarily, but before Shadow Discord could recover a massive rainbow beam wrapped around it. When Arceus stopped, Shadow Discord was gone. "Good. Destroying that much of its power has severely weakened it, but there is not a minute to lose." Arceus landed on the ground as Mew flew over to it.
"This was you? You caused Pokemon to start coming here? You sent me here without warning me that it was back?" Arceus nodded. "And it never crossed your mind that I could easily help you and be prepared for it instead of piecing it together at the last second, after it already destroyed much of Canterlot?"
"No. Honestly, I expected that if I told you, you'd be stressed to the point of acting irrationally." Arceus turned away from Mew and walked over to Twilight. "You are the leader of your group of friends, yes?"
"Well, none of us are in charge, so no." She raised an eyebrow. "Why wou-"
Arceus interrupted. "Are you the one who usually comes up with the plan?"
"Yes, but-" She started.
Arceus cut her off again. "Are you the one who tends to fix issues between your friends?"
"I am, but I-" She tried to say.
Arceus ignored her trying to speak. "If you went to go do something, would they follow you to help?"
"Probably, but that-" Twilight was getting annoyed now.
Arceus nodded. "Then you are, unofficially, the leader." Arceus lowered its head and bowed. "I am grateful that you and your friends were so accepting of the Pokemon. I assume you heard everything that was said during the fight?"
"Yes, and?"
"I am in need of the assistance of you and your friends. It is still alive, and will not stop trying to remove everything from existence until it either succeeds or perishes. Your Elements of Harmony, as well as your abilities to make and keep friends are the keys to fixing the Sky Prism and defeating it once and for all."
"Um, Mr. Arceus?" Fluttershy shrank when Arceus looked at her. "What is it? I mean, we know it's a being of chaos and destruction and corruption, but what is its name?"
Arceus fell silent. After a short time it sighed. "It was the first being I ever created. I needed a being to counteract me, to be able to destroy things when they go too far, to be able to cause the struggles that cause evolution. Alongside it, I created Mew, who could keep up with us and would be able to use anything we could against us, as well as be the creativity for what we make. I made it powerful, but after eons, something changed about it. It began to take my creations and distort them in such a way that they began to corrupt everything around them. It also turned my creations against each other by a strange sort of mind control, allowing them to destroy themselves. When Mew and I finally determined that we had to take it down, it was a fight we couldn't lose. However, it had gotten so powerful from the corruption and the conflict that it was able to destroy everything we had created." Arceus looked down, looking rather sad. "When we were finally able to defeat it, it didn't get destroyed by our attacks. It threatened that it would corrupt everything we ever made, it would cause changes that would be inexplicable, and that any who tried to solve it would fight over differing theories, from which it would gain power and return. We trapped it in another dimension and I created Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina to keep the dimension out of sync with any others by keeping it out of time with everything else. Any breaches were to be shut immediately, and Giratina was to, in secret, observe the dimension and report to me any issues. That is why Giratina lives in the Reverse World, so that it cannot be distracted and can observe everything in peace. However, it was still able to cause some influence. It is the reason Pokemon evolve like they do instead of growing naturally, and how when Pokemon breed they are almost always near-copies of their mother instead of being a mixture of father and mother. It lived up to its threat, and scientists eventually began to call the Evolution Glitch by a name it approved of: Missingno."
Fluttershy came over and patted Arceus on the shoulder. "You did what you had to, and as much as you could."
"Thank you. But there is much that needs to be done. Are you all ready to go?"
"No."
Arceus turned towards the voice, coming from a short distance away. Standing there was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, with Discord hovering overhead. "Princess Celestia. Did you just say no?"
"Yes, I did." Celestia walked over to Arceus. "I'm sorry, but your plan is insane. Twilight and her friends could get seriously injured or killed trying to do what you ask of them, and I cannot allow it."
Arceus laughed. "I do not recall asking your permission. You did raise a good point, and I should have mentioned it earlier. The Legendary Pokemon have already secured most of the Pokeparks and will be able to provide assistance as needed. Speaking of..." Arceus looked at the assembled Legendaries. "Regigigas, you chose to go to the Granite Zone. Tornadus, go to the Crag Area. Regice, you shall go to the Unawarehouse in the Tech Area. Meloetta, go to the house in the Haunted Zone. Deoxys and Genesect are to go to the Meeting Place. Darkrai, take Dusknoir's attraction and Prism Piece. Jirachi, do the same with the Vine Swing." Assorted portals appeared and the Legendaries went into them, leaving Keldeo, Mew, and Victini behind.
"What about us?" Keldeo complained. "We can help!"
"You and the Trailblazers are going to travel with Twilight and her friends." Arceus said, chuckling at Blitzle's massive grin.
"No."
Arceus turned towards the voice. It was Wigglytuff. "I refuse to allow the Trailblazers to go through with this. Not only is this a much larger undertaking than either of them-"
"The three of us." Ponyta said as Sableye jumped up and down.
"Than the three of them have ever done, but the Guild and most other teams have been looking for them for a while. The biggest reason, however, is something else." Wigglytuff then got a huge grin. "The rest of the guild would be jealous that they can't join. They can only go if anything that wishes to help is brought to the Pokeparks to be able to help in some form or another."
Mew raised an eyebrow. "How do you define anything?"
"Anything. As in, Pokemon, Pony, Dragon, whatever Discord is, ANYTHING." Wigglytuff crossed its arms. "That is my one condition and it must be followed if you want the Trailblazers to go."
Arceus nodded. "Very well. Any creature, living, dead, undead, construct, illusion, et cetera that wishes to help, assist, provide aid, stop Missingno, et cetera will be brought to the Pokeparks in order to try and help, assist, provide aid, stop Missingno, et cetera. Is that sufficient?"
Wigglytuff nodded happily. "Yup. Mind if I let the Guild know so that they can choose?"
Arceus opened a portal as Mew flew over to Wigglytuff. "I checked and I'm a bit confused at how the Guild's base is both here and in Treasure Town."
Chatot hopped to the portal. "Perhaps the insides duplicated, but the grate and tent were brought with us. I wouldn't be surprised if Wigglytuff put up a new tent and grate after the ones that had been there disappeared." Wigglytuff nodded in agreement before going through the portal. Diglett and Chatot followed Team Charm, Skull, Cascade, and Sneaky through the portal, but Bidoof ran over to Blitzle and gave him a hug.
"Keep safe, okay? I don't need you guys to be gone for good this time"
"Bidoof, I'm the one who should be warning you." Blitzle patted him on the back. "Don't worry, we'll be fine." Bidoof smiled, nodded, and ran through the portal. Absol looked at the group before locking eyes with Arceus and nodding. Absol tuned and entered the portal before it closed.
Arceus nodded. "A little bit of clarity for your mission. There are two central areas in the Pokeparks. The Meeting Place for the zone half, and Cove Town for the area half. You will first go to the Zones, making friends, clearing attractions, and bringing the Pokemon back together to fix the Sky Prism. Doing that will make it safe for you to enter the Wish Park, which you will access in the Areas. In Wish Park, you will need to ring the Wish Bell in the four zones, freeing it from Missingno's influence. Doing so will drain it of any more power it may try to use to recover. Be warned, however. Missingno will not let you proceed without conflict. It has already corrupted most of the Pokemon in the Pokepark in one way or another, and I expect it will send more Shadow Pokemon, Corrupted Pokemon, or Glitched Pokemon to try and stop you. Are you ready to begin training?"
Mew looked at Arceus. "Training? Arceus, we don't have time-"
"Actually, I do have time." Standing there was a massive blue creature with four legs and a tall head. It seemed to have white armor on its back, head, chest, and feet. Next to it floated a black and grey Abra. "Dialga, Temporal Pokemon. Time is my specialty, and all practice needed will take place within what feels like instants. Palkia, Giratina, and I have been selected to train you more effectively in battle and skill games. Come with us."
Arceus nodded. "Impeccable timing as always, Dialga. Go with it to the Reverse World to gain an edge on Missingno."
Twilight looked cautiously at Dialga. "Is it safe?"
Mew smiled. "One hundred percent."
Twilight looked at Mew. "What will happen here while we are gone?"
"Twilight..." Princess Luna walked over to her. "I promise everything will be fine in Equestria. If Missingno plans on destroying everything, how Equestria is doing is the least of our concern, as it should be yours."
"But what if-"
Princess Celestia cut her off. "Twilight. Equestria can handle not having you and your friends for a while. Besides, if anything happens we can just contact you through Spike." Celestia looked at Arceus critically. "He will be going with them, correct?"
"I wouldn't dream of him not participating. We are out of time. Dialga, take them to the Reverse World."
"Wait wait wait wait wait." Victini looked a little frantic. "Do I have time to go on my streaming? I've been gone a long time and people might worry about me." Arceus gave it a stern look and Victini pouted. "Fine. I do have to wonder how Twitch is doing without me..."
Arceus gave a frustrated grunt. "If there are no interruptions, Dialga, are you ready to go?"
Dialga nodded. "Of course. We have all of time to waste." It glanced at the Abra. "Arbah, are you prepared?"
Arbah nodded, telekinetically pulling Blitzle, Ponyta, Sableye, Keldeo, Victini, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow over to it. Then they, Dialga, and Arbah disappeared.
Shadow Mewtwo, who had been surprisingly quiet for a while, spoke up. "That happened way too fast."
Arceus shook its head. "Nay. It took too long. Mew, take Shadow Mewtwo and give it somewhere safe to train and practice its skills and then come to the Sky Pavilion. They should be arriving in the Pokeparks shortly, so we have to get to work."
Discord raised an eyebrow. "They were just taken to the Reverse World to be trained. How are they already almost there? I don't make sense and even I can't understand it."
"Dialga is the Pokemon in control of Time. Control of the flow or lack thereof." Mew giggled. "Forward, backward, stopping it entirely except for one particular dimension, easy."
Discord considered. "That's clever. If you don't mind, I would like to go have a look at the Pokeparks. See what I can do, know what I mean?"
Even as the princesses shared concerned looks, Mew nodded. "Alright, you can go. But you have to check in with Deoxys once you arrive and let us know of anything unusual." Discord started to open his mouth and it continued. "Other than you."
"Yes!" Discord pumped his fist. "I get to mess with the Pokeparks! I get to mess with the Pokeparks!"
"You get to help the Pokeparks." Celestia corrected. "Arceus, promise me that you will keep us informed."
"It is only reasonable. What if you need to contact me in case another Pokemon arrives?"
Mew gasped. "OH! That reminds me! Arceus, we need to remove the Thunderclaps from here!" Arceus raised an eyebrow. "Pokemon gang." Mew teleported away, only to return very quickly. "They broke out. More likely, they were broken out. The point is, they're free and that is a problem."
Luna nodded. "They are an issue that must be dealt with. We will send the Royal Guard after them, but Pokemon have appeared to be more capable when dealing with other Pokemon. As for communications, why not just keep a portal open?"
Mew shook its head. "Something could sneak through."
Celestia thought. "I could enchant a pair of books to each other so that when one is written in it the words appear on the other." A pair of thick notebooks, one with Celestia, Solgaleo, and Ho-oh and one with Luna, Darkrai, and Cresselia appeared.
"Please do." Arceus glanced at the looks it was getting. "What? It's a sun and moon motif. I'm allowed to be creative, it's just usually Mew's job." Celestia smiled as she put magic into the notebooks. After she nodded, Arceus turned towards a portal. "The best of luck, princesses. I will see who can help you deal with the gang." It and Mew went through the portal with the moon notebook, closing the portal behind them.
-----------------------
Dialga, Controller of Time, stood in the Reverse World looking out. It wasn't looking at anything, rather looking at sometime. It looked into the future to see what would become of the quest. It only gathered bits and pieces of time, but it learned much from those snapshots.
"All right, let's put it to vote. Find Victini or not?"
"Well then. Applejack, you've got my strength at your beck and call." Torterra chuckled. "To be honest, I haven't had a good test of strength with another since Chesnaught headed out to the Granite Zone for some answers."
The male glanced up at the Golurk winding up for another punch. Knowing that his Pokemon couldn't take another hit like that, he nodded. "After all I've done, not a bad way to go." He ran towards the Golurk and got in front of the punch as it came down.
"Keldeo! Victini! There's a piano in here, and it's playing along with me!" Meloetta looked overjoyed. "I think that a Rotom is in there, but it has a good ear."
Keldeo stomped its hoof and looked at its three mentors with a look of rage. "Let's see if the student has finally surpassed the teachers, shall we?"
"Who, me? I'm nothing special. Ex-criminal, hero of Orre, master battle strategist, breaker of league rules, powerful trainer, the only thing keeping these Pokemon out of the Scientorium and Wish Park." He pointed and vines shot up from the ground to tangle the attackers. He smirked at the look of surprise on Twilight's face. "Oh, and Celebi's best friend. Was that important?"
"Don't you get it?" The Lava Dome Pokemon laughed at the group. "I'm going to detonate the volcano with you in it!"
"Come, Ponyta. We have much to discuss about Truth." The flames died down as the voice spoke. "As we do so, I will battle you to see if you can handle the truth. Win or lose, show me your spirit."
The Espeon hardly flinched as she ripped the Machamp into pieces with Psychic. "What a waste of my time."
"You all seem so confused. Perhaps I can be of assistance." Discord appeared before them, laughing. "Surprise!"
"I agree with Pinkie. It's time for a party on the beach!" Victini set some driftwood ablaze. "Besides, this will make these Pokemon more friendly with us and one another, and that's our mission alongside clearing the attractions for the Sky Prism Pieces."
"Do you dare to fight for your ideals?" Blitzle began sparking up, smirking at his opponent. "Very well. Face me and show me how much your ideals truly mean to you."
Flygon slammed into a Snorlax, who stopped it from attacking. Another being stepped towards the Dragon-Ground type. "Cool it. They've done nothing to you." Grumbling, it flew off. The being turned to Keldeo and knelt down to its height. "Sorry about that. Even up here in the Granite Zone has been affected by Missingno. Mew asked if I could come keep the peace, and I figured I could help. The name's Red."
"You destroyed my brothers!" The voice was so loud and powerful that the blizzard intensified. Yellow eyes glowed from behind the snowfall. "Now I will destroy you!"
"Query: Hey dudes, wanna go skateboards?"
"Ampharos, Medicham, Altaria, Heracross, Absol, Houndoom, Metagross, Tyranitar!" The Pokemon glanced at him briefly before nodding. "Mega Evolve!"
"So let's do a headcount here. Sharon, a crazy quick thinker with a Metagross and Pokemon who get stronger the more they attack together; Ross, who sees the world as one big puzzle and sees how to solve it alongside Machamp with Steadfast as an ability even though it seems to have a one-way No Guard; and me, Favored by Mew, a toy maker with a Smeargle powered by Arceus whose paintings can change reality and you, sir, managed to be such a nuisance that all three of us were brought to deal with you. So, are you still so certain that you're going to win?"
"The answer is unclear. Missingno's directly influencing events, so I am having trouble seeing through time in more than snippets here or there. Thank you for the information about how the Sky Prism Pieces recharge with power. Note to self: The Sky Prism Pieces can only be recharged how Palkia had guessed, but let Palkia explain its guess and let that be the assumption." Dialga nodded despite the strange looks it was getting. "Now go clear Venusaur's Vine Swing and make friends with the rest of the Meadow Zone. One last thing: Applejack, get the help of Torterra. He's the closest thing Venusaur has to a friend that's in the Meadow Zone, and his strength will prove useful in getting through the gate barricading Venusaur in his room."