Two Pokemon moved through the void that is Spacial Rift, home to Palkia, ruler of Space. The leader, one who used to be a human but lost his memory, is now a Charizard. After finally defeating the one who wanted to rule the world, the once Charmander had been allowed to evolve. He was not the only one that couldn't evolve though.

His partner, once a Riolu, is now a Lucario. When the two first met, it was at the entrance to Beach Cave, where Riolu's personal treasure was stolen. He saw the unconscious Charmander, and raced to make sure he was alright. When he woke up and explained who he was, two crooks came and stole the Relic Fragment. Charmander and Riolu managed to get it back, and Riolu asked Charmander if he wanted to form an Exploration Team. Charmander accepted and ever since then, the two have been inseparable.

Back to the Charizard and Lucario though. "Do you think Palkia has something new to show us?" The Lucario asked. The Charizard just shrugged his shoulders in response.

Charizard had never talked much, the longest had been after they had defeated Primal Dialga. Lucario never wanted to remember that day. The two continued on in silence, pondering to themselves what it could be.

"Just over here." Another voice called. The Charizard and Lucario looked at each other and ran off to the source.

They found Palkia looking over something. "Hey there, Palkia. What are you working on?" The Lucario asked.

Palkia turned around to address them. "Hello to you too, Aura and Blaze. To answer your question, I'm making a special item imbued with some of my power that will allow someone to move across space at high speeds, almost like Teleport, but everyone can use it." Palkia said.

The duo waited around until Palkia was finished. About 10 minutes later, it was ready.

"Okay you two, all you have to do is place your paw/claw on it and I'll calibrate it for Treasure Town." Palkia said.

Blaze and Aura touched the small black orb with a small purple spiral in the centre. When they did, it instantly started flashing.

"Not that I know of. Step back and I'll take another look at it." Palkia instructed.

As Team Pokepals started to calm themselves, the orb flashed again. Then again. And again. It continued flashing at increasing speeds before it was like a solid light. The light quickly started expanding outward, enveloping the two Pokemon stuck to it. The white turned to black, before disappearing completely. When Palkia opened its eyes, Team Pokepals were gone with the orb.

In Ponyville the sun shone through the bright blue sky, filling everypony with energy for their daily tasks. Except for one whodidn't need the extra energy.

Said pony was currently bouncing through Ponyville and greeting everypony she saw.

"Hello! Good morning! Howdy!" She continued like this until she came to her pranking buddy, Rainbow Dash.

"Oh! What is it? Are we going to put frosting all over the streets again?" Pinkie asked.

"Nope! We're going to get Twilight to believe there's a new species out there that nopony has ever seen before." Rainbow said with an evil grin.

"I've got the preparations all ready, just take this and hide it where ever you keep all your other stuff." Rainbow said, holding out a piece of paper. Pinkie took it and started reading through it. Her smile increasingly got bigger as she read.

Twilight was sitting in her library, re-reading 'Magic Techniques for Dummies'. Spike was out for the day, most likely helping Rarity. Before Twilight could start reading the next page, the door to the library slammed open and in flew Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight! You're not going to believe this! There's been a new species that nopony has ever seen before just recently discovered!" She exclaimed loudly.

It took Twilight's brain a couple of seconds to register what she just heard. "WHAT?!" She shrieked.

"It's true!" A chipper voice sounded before the owner bounced into the library. "I saw it in the newspaper! Look!" Pinkie said, handing a paper over to Twilight.

Twilight skimmed through the front page, taking note of how the writing looked... rushed? She continued to examine it until she let out a triumphant "Aha!".

"So you say there's a new creature, huh?" She asked. Pinkie and Rainbow nodded. "Then why is it on a fake newspaper?" She asked with a pleased smile. Rainbow and Pinkie both deflated at that claim.

"How close were we to getting you to believe about a new species, though?" Pinkie asked, returning to her normal mood.

Twilight let out a small laugh. "You nearly had me. If it weren't for the writing I might've believed you."

"Twilight! There's these weird creatures near the edge of the Everfree Forest! They don't look like anything I've seen before! Well, except maybe the one that looks like a dragon, but anyway, you gotta come quick!" He said before turning around to face the door. He was about to run out before Twilight grabbed him in her magic.

"Spike, don't tell me you thought this was a good idea to try and prank me too." Twilight said with a groan. She looked over to Pinkie and Rainbow, only to see them looking confused.

"We didn't tell him anything about the prank." Rainbow said, Pinkie shaking her head for emphasis.

Twilight looked back to Spike and sighed. "Fine, we'll go and see these 'new creatures'." Sarcasm was very obvious in her voice.

Blaze let out a groan as he sat up. Where are we? He thought. He looked over to see Aura unconscious. He stood up and started to shake him awake.

Blaze rolled his eyes and breathed out a small Flamethrower at Aura. "OW! OW! OW! Okay, I'm up!" He said as he rubbed at the spot Blaze hit him.

Aura calmed down and gave Blaze the stink eye. "You're too strong for your own good." He muttered. Blaze just shrugged and pointed at him, as to say "So are you.". Aura laughed and agreed. Both of them had fought countless Legendaries and won, even befriending them. The only one they hadn't fought was Arceus.

Aura started to take note of their surroundings. "Did Palkia's experiment work?" He asked, seeing as they were in a field next to a forest. Looked a bit like the forest at Fogbound Lake.

Blaze shrugged and started looking around too. As he looked, he took notice of a small, yellow creature with pink hair on four legs. Blaze smiled and waved. Aura noticed this and asked; "What are you waving at?"

Blaze pointed over to where the creature was and waved again. This time, Aura joined in on the waving. The creature smiled softly and waved back. Although it was a tiny wave.

"Oh, hello there Twilight. I'm just watching these new creatures. Did Spike come and get you?" Fluttershy responded.

"Yes, and I'm having a very hard time believing there's a new creature that nopony has ever seen before. "

Twilight rolled her eyes and peeked over their little cover. "I don't see any.........thing."

Twilight could not believe what she was seeing. Just in front of the Everfree was a dragon, but it looked nothing like any dragon she had seen, and something else that resembled a Diamond Dog with metal spikes coming out of its chest and paws. The two seemed to be talking, suggesting that they were sentient. The dragon looked to where she was.

Twilight froze in shock, hoping that the dragon wouldn't spot her from where she was. Her fear grew as it smiled. It pointed her out to its companion and soon both of them were looking at her. Twilight began to hyperventilate until they started waving. Twilight snapped out of her shock and her foreleg gave a jerky wave back. She quickly ducked back down and turned to Fluttershy, who had a smile on her face.

"Did they wave to you?" The timid Pegasus asked. Twilight didn't trust her mouth at that time, and only nodded. "They did that to me too."

The two watched the new creatures sit down and start talking. Soon enough, the rest of their friends gathered around them.

The six friends watched in silence as the Diamond Dog gestured to the Everfree Forest. "What do you think they're thinking?" Asked Rarity.

Her question was soon answered as the dragon nodded and the duo got up and entered the Everfree. "How could they ever think of going into a horrid place like that?!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Come on! We have to follow them!" Rainbow Dash said before following behind them. Everypony sighed before following her.

Blaze took the lead as they went through the forest. It wasn't the most calming of places, but they had faced bigger threats than a tiny forest before.

"What do you think those creatures were, Blaze?" Aura asked, trying to relieve some of the tension. Blaze just shrugged. "They looked like some sort of Ponyta, but there were vast differences." Aura continued. Blaze nodded in agreement.

The two continued walking in silence, focusing on the path. They eventually found some sort of castle ruins. The duo took a moment to look at what was left of it before going inside. Just before the entrance, they found a Kangaskhan rock. Must still be near Treasure Town. Blaze thought before equipping their standard item set for exploring new places.

4 Oran berries, 4 Reviver seeds, 4 Apples, a berry to cure each status condition, and an Escape Orb. With their gear set, Team Pokepals moved inside the ruins.

As they moved through the castle, the only enemies they saw were strange wooden wolves. They dubbed these 'Woodwolves' and quickly demolished them through Blaze's Flamethrower. Soon enough, they got to the lowest point of the ruins. In front of them was a stone wall with the Relic Fragment's design. There were strange runes on the wall, which gave pause to Blaze. Why do I feel as though I've read this before? He asked himself.

"This is getting boring!" Rainbow complained. The group had been following the new creatures for a while until they lost sight of them. Rainbow was going to fly ahead to locate them, but was held back by the group saying they would be safer with all of them there.

"It looked like they were heading towards the Castle of the Two Sisters." Twilight said, catching everypony's attention. "We should go there and see if they're there."

The group moved towards the castle, making sure no animals got the opportunity to attack. When they made it there, they saw remains of Timberwolves in the area. What shocked them the most, was that they had all been burned.

"It's possible. The only animal that I know of that can breathe fire is a dragon." Twilight responded.

They all moved inside the castle and followed the charred remains of the Timberwolves, leading them further down into the castle. As they went, more burnt wood entered their vision, leading them on. Soon enough, they started loosing light as they approached the basement.

"I would have to agree with Rainbow on this one. What if I step in something horrid?" Rarity said. Everypony just rolled their eyes. Twilight lit up her horn, giving off some light. It was soon unneeded as a light could be seen up ahead. The group sped up to see what was in the light.

When they got close enough, they instantly stopped. In front of them were the creatures from before.

"Why do you think there's a picture of the Relic Fragment?" Aura asked. He turned to face Blaze, and saw him staring at some runes. "What are these?"

Blaze turned to Aura and shrugged before going back to the runes. Aura sat down and decided to figure out why the Relic Fragment was imprinted here of all places. The duo sat in silence before Blaze let out a sound of triumph.

"What is it?" Aura asked. Blaze didn't respond, but instead took one last glance at the runes before walking over to the picture. He stopped just in front of it and turned to Aura.

"Place your paw on it." Blaze said. Aura looked confused but obliged. As soon as Aura came into contact with the design, it started glowing blue before the wall disintegrated.

"Well then, didn't expect that to happen." Aura said. Blaze started walking ahead with Aura following behind before a pair of blue eyes opened in front of them.

A soft growl could be heard as the room started to slowly brighten, revealing a massive dragon, the size of two houses, that had black scales and the blue eyes from before. The dragon started glowing before it split into two puddles of black ooze. The liquid started forming into someone else's form, before Aura and Blaze realized who's it was.

In front of them was a copy of Blaze, except black with blue eyes, and a copy of Aura with the same colour scheme. The Blaze copy let out a roar before a white light flashed over them.

Aura used an Earthquake to hit both of them, but it only hit the Aura copy. Blaze flew into the air and unleashed a Flamethrower at the Aura copy, the both of them silently agreeing to take down the Lucario first.

The Blaze copy let out a Flamethrower of its own at Aura, but Aura jumped out of the way. The Aura copy used an Aura Sphere on Aura, but Blaze flew in and took the hit, knowing it would cause less damage to him. Blaze decided to use Dragon Claw on the Blaze copy with Aura retaliating with an Aura Sphere of his own.

Blaze missed and got hit with a Dragon Claw from the copy, but Aura hit his mark. The copy let out a grunt of pain before returning with an Earthquake. Blaze quickly swooped down to lift Aura off the ground before Aura jumped out of his grip and landed on his back. Blaze then used a Blast Burn on the Aura copy and Aura jumped down to use Close Combat. The Aura copy was tiring fast, which got the Blaze copy to step up its game a bit more.

The Blaze copy quickly flew up and unleashed a massive Flamethrower at the two before sending out a Blast Burn. Blaze made sure he covered Aura, but suffered the most damage. Blaze used his last move in his move set, Dragon Pulse, hitting the Blaze copy. A small smoke cloud enveloped the copy before it flew out with a Flamethrower ready to go. Blaze quickly jumped into the air and charged up another Dragon Pulse before releasing it as the copy released its Flamethrower. The two attacks met head-on and as they struggled for dominance, the other two Pokemon were fighting.

Aura used Earthquake again, but the copy jumped into the air before using an Aura Sphere. Aura met it with one of his own before following up with Flash Cannon. It hit, but didn't cause too much damage. The copy rushed forward to use Close Combat, which Aura returned, matching its punches and kicks with his own. Aura saw an opening in the copy's defence and quickly took advantage of it. With a kick, Aura sent the copy flying and sent an Aura Sphere after it. The attack hit its mark and caused the copy to fall to the ground.

It stood up, but it was obvious that it was on the last straw. The copy then started charging an Aura Sphere in one paw and a Flash Cannon in the other. It combined the two before letting off a beam that had the aura particles mixed in the the steel of the attack. Aura quickly jumped to the side, but the beam followed him, making him have to move. As the combined attack continued following him, he heard screams of fright and took a glance to where they came from.

He saw 6 of the little creatures from before, huddling on the ground to stay below the level of the beam, which went across the wall right where their heads would be. Aura returned his attention to the copy and quickly dashed at it. Aura used another Close Combat and finished it by using an Aura Sphere point blank. When the smoke cleared, the copy was on the ground unconscious.

Blaze had overpowered the Flamethrower and followed up with various Dragon Claw's to deal as much damage possible. Finishing his combo, Blaze used a Flamethrower before settling back on the ground. Aura and Blaze looked at each other before smirking and nodding. They both charged up their strongest attacks, Blast Burn and Aura Sphere, before combining the two. Among the flames, a blue spiral could be seen. They released the attack right at the Blaze copy, who had just managed to stand up, and blasted it into the wall behind it. When they could see again, both copies were out cold.

"Alright!" Aura cheered. The copies turned back into the black ooze from before and disappeared. Where they once were, was a a treasure chest. Aura looked at Blaze who had started walking towards it. When he got to the treasure chest, he opened it up to see two stones.

One was blue with a black flame on the inside, containing two different shades of blue inside the flame. The other was orange with a blue flame, containing different shades of red on the inside. Blaze grabbed them both and chucked the orange one to Aura, feeling more drawn to the blue one.

"What are these?" Aura asked, looking over the stone. Blaze shrugged before looking around for anything else. He saw a door in the wall and walked through it. Aura took one last glance before following behind.

"DID YOU SEE THAT?!" Rainbow shouted. "THEY JUST DEMOLISHED THEM! IT WAS AMAZING!"

"Yes Rainbow, we were there." Rarity replied calmly. You could hear the irritation in her voice though, no matter how much she hid it.

"I KNOW RIGHT?! IT WAS LIKE, BAM! KAPOW! WOOSH! NOO!" Pinkie decided to contribute to the conversation

"Will you two shut it?!" Twilight asked, obviously at her breaking point. "How could they do those attacks?! It's like magic, but not magic! It doesn't make any sense!"

"Twilight, darling, you simply must calm down. All that worrying will do horrors to your complexion." Rarity said, always worrying about appearances.

"Uh, Rarity?" Applejack asked. "I think you shouldn't be worrying about how Twilight looks, but rather where did they go." She pointed a foreleg to show that the creatures were gone.

Everypony gasped. "Quick, find where they went!" Twilight ordered before running around. It was Fluttershy who found the slightly open door.

"Girls!" That got all of their attention. "I found a door that's slightly open." They all rushed around her to see the door before going through it.

Lit torches aligned the hallway they had just entered, giving off enough light to see by. Twilight led them down the hallway before they came to an open room. Inside was a series of paintings, depicting two stones and the creatures from before.

The first one was the dragon holding a blue stone. It became enveloped in a... shell and the last one in the row was the dragon becoming black and blue with blue flames sticking out of its mouth.

The next paintings underneath that was one of the other creature. This time it was holding an orange stone before the same thing happened, except it grew longer fur and looked overall more aggressive. There was one last painting that took up an entire wall, depicting a battle between the two creatures at the end of the first paintings against a massive shadow. The shadow had red eyes, and even though it was a painting, you could feel the hate coming from them.

When Team Pokepals arrived in the room, they saw the paintings for themselves holding a stone.

"What is this?" Aura asked. Blaze looked closer at the paintings before turning around. He spotted the larger one on another wall and pointed it out to Aura.

"Wow, never seen anything like this." Aura continued to look at it before one thing registered in his mind. "Doesn't that shadow look a bit like... Darkrai?"

Blaze had to agree that it did look very similar. Looking around some more, Blaze found some more of the writing from before.

For those from another land,
Be prepared for one last stand.
One enemy you have faced before,
Will come back to haunt you more.
Use those stones you now own,
To defeat the one who walks alone.
Friends along the way will help you see,
The path to grant you victory.

"Find something?" Aura asked, making Blaze jump slightly. When he recovered, he nodded and pointed out the writing to Aura.

"It looks like gibberish to me!" Aura protested. Blaze shrugged. The two stood in silence before Aura spoke up.

Blaze read over it one more time before responding. "For those from another land, be prepared for one last stand. One enemy you have faced before, will come back to haunt you more. Use those stones you now own, to defeat the one who walks alone. Friends along the way will help you see, the path to grant you victory."

"What do you think it means by stones?" Aura asked after a moment of silence. Blaze looked back to the earlier drawings and brought out his stone. When it was brought into the light, it started flashing before a band appeared on Blaze's arm with the stone set inside a small section for it. Aura did the same and both of them looked to each other.

The two of them whirled around after hearing a sudden gasp from behind. Trying to hide but obviously failing, was a group of 6 of the creatures they saw before.

The lead purple one said something which Aura couldn't understand, but made Blaze's eyes widen.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Friendship Brigade

by YoshiBrony6

Chapter 1