Trick Room
Liz made her way through the Ruins of Alph. They had been right; there was something different about them today. There was a tension in the air, and despite the fact that she was deep underground light was coming from… somewhere. The walls? Liz looked at the walls, at the shapes that covered them. They didn’t seem to be glowing. She sighed… she was tempted to try and read the script, it was easy since it was apparently the basis for the alphabet she knew and loved, but she could never keep the O and the G straight, nor P and G. It was almost always gibberish, anyway.
While she was musing on the script and what good it was to try and read it, she made eye contact with one of the letters. An Unown A was on the wall, as Unowns often are, and as soon as it realized she had noticed it, it peeled itself off of the stone and sped down the corridor. Liz followed, as she had just enough experience with these things that she knew that Unown don’t usually move with a purpose unless they had one.
She followed the Unown around a corner, and saw it disappear in a gap between two blocks of wall. “No, come on!” She said to herself as she peered into the gap. She then let out a slight “huh” as she realized that this was the only time she had seen a gap like this in a wall in the Ruins of Alph. Gaps between stones were not common occurrences in these ruins… but, she realized after a moment, secret doors were. She glanced at the writing on the slab.
GRASP AND PULL
STEP INTO THE ROUND
CROSS THE DIVIDE
And there was a lot of other stuff, too, but it mainly seemed to be rambling on cupcakes. Liz would later look back on this and wonder how it was possible that cupcakes were mentioned on the walls of a couple thousand year old ruin, but at the moment she was too excited at the idea of exploration to realize how odd this was.
She wedged her fingers into the opening, and found that the imposing looking stone wall was actually a somewhat narrow slab; still somewhat heavy but not immovable. She tugged it aside just enough that she could get through, and into the secret passage.
Her first instinct once in the dark passageway was to bring out a Pokémon and have it light the way; but there was light coming from up ahead and the tunnel was straight and short. It was also very smooth; there was no writing on the walls at all. Liz thought this as odd, but quickly decided that it was supposed to be a secret passage, and so perhaps they felt that carving the inside of it would bring it unwanted attention. Liz didn’t claim to understand the thought processes of ancient… Unownians.
At the end of the tunnel was a large, round room. In fact, it was a perfect sphere about a hundred feet across, with no flat floor to speak of. Liz stepped in and slid to the middle, before looking around. Yep, sure was perfect. The only breaks in the sphere were the square door that she had come in, and twenty-seven holes in the upper hemisphere of the room. Of course, the holes were about Unown size, and that’s probably how they got into the room, she realized, immediately before they began to do exactly that.
One Unown is no danger, and two generally are little trouble, but six can be imposing, and ten, twenty, thirty, or more can be a very big risk. When the Unown began to flood into the room, Liz turned and ran toward the door as fast as she could. It was up, away from her, of course, and she couldn’t scale the sphere. But she had to have a Pokémon that could. She reached for her belt; but that’s all the further she got before she was lifted into the air.
She felt the force of the Unown in her head. She knew she had to do something… but she wasn’t very experienced with psychic types, or their psychic powers, or how to fight them in her head. Some part of her said, “Get out a Pokémon!” but she couldn’t remember where her belt was. She wanted to call for help, but she didn’t remember how her voice worked.
When she began to see stars, some part of her said to close her eyes. She didn’t; they were so beautiful. When they began spinning and merging into a silvery multicolored kaleidoscopic mass, she wanted to close her eyes but could not look away.
When she began to see colors that did not exist, it was already far too late.
When she woke up, she came to the conclusion that the world was spinning way too much, and tried to go back to sleep. Alas, her wish was denied and she found herself wide awake hoping that the spinning would stop before she lost her lunch. Thankfully, it did, but only barely, and even after it stopped she spent a while working at not throwing up. She decided against trying to stand up immediately, instead trying to figure out what just happened. She was in the Ruins of Alph… right, there was a secret tunnel, to a big round room, and-COLORS
Liz winced and closed her eyes shut tight. The colors. She had read somewhere that Butterfree could see in more colors than humans could, and wondered if that’s what it was like for Butterfree on a daily basis. Either that… or a Butterfree going through what she just went through would risk their heads exploding.
Whatever that was that she just went through.
Liz decided that the headache, spinning, and upset stomach had all subsided enough for her to try and stand. She stood up, a bit wobbly on her legs, and looked around. She was in a forest, pristine and empty. The Unown must have dumped her here, she figured. She shifted back and forth on her legs. There was something about her that felt funny, felt off, felt not quite right. She looked around, trying to see if there was something in the area she was missing-ah. Her hat laid nearby, a white sun hat with a red ring and a white and red button on the front. She was fairly sure that there was something more off than simply that she was hatless, but she reached for the familiar item of clothing nonetheless.
When a white hoof reached forward and touched her hat, she was surprised. She followed it up the leg… to the shoulder, and was quite confused when she realized that the shoulder was hers. She stumbled backward a bit, shook her head, and gave herself a look over.
She was some kind of… quadruped. She had a white coat, a red mane, and was wearing something like her usual black and blue vest.
Liz shifted back and forth on her feet… hooves. She had hooves now. From what she could see, she was basically a Ponyta, but without the fire. And wearing a vest… and a hat. She was going to wear that hat; she needed every ounce of familiarity that she could get right now. And if she was wearing a hat then it was likely that trainers that saw her wouldn’t think that she was wild… she hoped.
Maybe she was some kind of new Pokémon, in a far-off region. It made more sense than thinking that she was a Ponyta without fire. “One thing at a time, Liz.” She told herself. “Oh, good, it sounds like I can talk normal; that means I should be able to talk trainers out of-erk!” She shook her head. It had taken her months to kick the habit of talking to herself, she wasn’t going to backslide now.
All the same, one thing at a time. Her hat will come first. It took a few minutes of working with her hooves, her teeth, and her back to get the hat on her head right, but once it was up there it was simple enough to adjust for her mane and ears. There was a nice, reassuring feeling. She turned into the wind. Yes… the wind in her face, her hat on her head, and her team around her waist-
She suddenly stopped and looked at her waist. Or, where it was supposed to be. The details didn’t matter. What mattered was that her belt was missing, and with it her team.
Her beloved Pokémon… were not with her. There were no balls, no footprints, no belt, no bag… they were not here.
She was alone.
It took a moment or two for it to sink in. She was alone.
Alone in a forest, in a place she wasn’t familiar with, in an unfamiliar body.
“Liz, calm down,” She said to herself. “You aren’t dead yet, and you know the usual tricks to find towns, there is no reason to panic. Just get going, and take things as they come. And stop talking to yourself, people will think you’re crazy.”
She sighed, and looked around. It would be best to head to the outskirts of the forest, as she would be able to see further from there. Streams, smoke, roads… she had to find something. She had to get somewhere before she could do anything else.
She started walking. She didn’t know where she was going, and she didn’t know what was going to happen, but that didn’t stop her.
“That’s never stopped me,” She muttered to herself.
A road. It took her a bit to realize what the brown line on the landscape was. She had been walking for… a while now. She guessed it was some hours, but wasn’t sure as her pokedex, pokegear, and watch had all disappeared. Most of that time was spent wandering around the forest, trying to figure out a way out, but now that she was out of the forest she only had to crest a hill and was able to see a dirt road in the distance. She galloped to it, happy to see this sign of civilization. Once there, however, her issue was quite similar: Left or right? One way would lead to civilization sooner, even if both would get there eventually.
But there was a better way to do this. The road was nestled between hills, gently curving around one. She trotted to the top of that hill, and looked both directions. In one direction, the road wandered off into the distance. In the other… between two hills, there were roofs visible. A town! A small one, but a town none the less! Liz wasted no time, and headed right for it. Even if it was full of people, she might be able to get a feeling of where she was.
Rarity pulled her haul through the market. It wasn’t her first choice, but it was the most direct path to Carousel Boutique. She was quite eager about this: a shipment of gems from the finest mines in all of Equestria, procured with help from Princess Luna to make Twilight, in Rarity’s words, “Royal garb fitting a Princess of your stature!” Rarity’s declaration of intent was carefully timed so that before Twilight could modestly turn the offer down and try to talk Rarity out of it, Rainbow Dash (with Fluttershy in tow) appeared to give Twilight flying lessons, giving her something else to try to modestly turn down.
There was no doubt in Rarity’s mind that by now the three were flitting around somewhere. Perhaps the sport track? Well, Rarity could worry about that later. For now, she had a large haul of gems to pull back to the boutique.
Looking around the market, Rarity silently noted that her amazing cargo was the most interesting thing going on in town today. As some of the ponies watched her go by, Rarity could see in their eyes that they wanted to wear some of those gems… hmm, if there was a rash of commissions after this, perhaps pulling her supplies through the market should be kept in mind for later dry periods.
Rarity then remembered the pile of commissions she already had. On second thought, if this caused a rash of commissions she would probably end up working three weeks straight.
Rarity tried to distract herself from such thoughts, and found distraction in the form of someone she didn’t recognize. An earth pony mare, looking around utterly confused. She was obviously a pony who cared about her appearance, even if her fashion sense was a bit off. The white and red hat went with her white coat and red mane perfectly! The vest… not so much. The mare, noticing that rarity was giving her attention, walked over.
“Excuse me, but… I’m a bit lost. Do you know where I am?”
“Ponyville,” Rarity told her, “A beautiful town. Where are you from? You have a big city feel about you. Fillydelphia?”
“Filly… no, not there. It’s… a city that you’ve probably never heard of.”
“Try me,” Rarity said. She had been to all of the biggest cities, doing fashion shows, or attending fashion shows, or visiting fellow fashionistas...
“Goldenrod City,” The mare said simply.
Rarity blinked. “I’ve never heard of that. Where is it?”
“Um…” The mare looked around. “compared to here? I’m not sure. I’m new-“
Rarity reflexively took a step back, avoiding the sudden barrage of confetti. Following the confetti was, who else, Pinkie Pie.
“NEW PONY! NEW PONY! HOORAY!” Pinkie Pie almost landed on the mare’s back. “I LOVE new ponies because that means it’s somepony that I haven’t met yet, which means it’s somepony that I’m not friends with yet, which means I might get a new friend! Don’t you love new friends? I DO!” The mare watched, confused by Pinkie’s sudden appearance and somewhat mesmerized by her bouncing. “I also love cakes, games, and parties! I really like parties so I throw them all the time! Oh boy, are you going to stay? If so I can throw a welcome to Ponyville party! But even if you only stay for a month or two, I can throw a going away party for when you leave! But I hope you’re not going away, because if you don’t you can come to LOTS and LOTS of parties!” Pinkie stopped bouncing for a moment. The mare didn’t move much. “Oh, right, I almost forgot. I’m Pinkie Pie!”
“And I’m Rarity,” Rarity said, thankful that Pinkie stopped and allowed her to say something before throwing the actual party.
The mare took a moment to look between Pinkie Pie and Rarity. “Liz.” She said simply. From the looks of it, she was half-expecting for Pinkie Pie to up and explode from happiness from this information.
“Wow! That’s a short name. It’ll make it easy to write on banners.” Pinkie mused to herself.
“Well, my full name is longer, but I prefer a nickname,” Liz explained.
“Oh, yeah! I understand that perfectly.” Pinkie began bouncing again. “Oh boy oh boy, are you going to be staying long? I would love to throw a welcome to Ponyville party for you! Are you going to stay? Huh? Huh? HUH?”
Liz shuffled back a bit, intimidated by pinkie’s exuberance. “I have no idea,” She said, half to pinkie pie and half to herself.
“Oh, well, if you are just let me know and I’ll throw a welcome party for you! Or if you’re not, just let me know and I’ll throw a Just Visiting party for you! Okay?”
“Okay,” Liz answered in a small voice.
“Keen!” Pinkie said, before hopping away, leaving a bewildered Liz with Rarity and Rarity’s cargo.
“Don’t worry about Pinkie,” Rarity said, “She’s always like that.”
“Okay,” Liz said again, glancing after the pink party pony. “Yes… okay… just, give me a minute.” Liz shook her head, trying to clear it. Here she was expecting things to make MORE sense once she gets to the town, and instead the whole place was full of not-Ponytas, some of which had Rapidash horns, and some of which had wings. “I don’t usually say this about people,” Liz said as she looked back at Rarity, “But that girl needs to lay off the caffeine.”
“Caffeine?” Rarity shook her head in response, “No, she’s like that all the time.” Rarity took a moment to ponder a highly caffeinated Pinkie Pie. She immediately came to the conclusion that not only should such a thing never, ever happen, ever, but the less it was thought about, the better. “In any case, welcome to Ponyville. We’re happy to have you, albeit not all as happy as Pinkie is.”
“Okay,” Liz replied simply. “So… um… need any help with your cart there?”
Rarity shook her head. “No, but thank you for asking. I may not be an earth pony, but I can pull my weight.”
Liz looked at the cart. The cart itself was taller than Rarity, and wider, and the gems were piled up to almost twice her height. “Are you sure? It’s really big, and rather overfull. Really, that’s a lot of gems. Where did they all come from? What are they all for?”
“Fashion!” Rarity declared without hesitation. “I run Carousel Boutique, a one-stop-shop for all of one’s fashion desires! I design clothes, for any occasion, occupation, color scheme, and budget. You?” Rarity reflexively looked at Liz’s cutie mark… huh. It was a red circle, white inside, cut in half by a red line, which had another red circle in the middle of it. Rarity had no idea what such a thing could mean… of course, a lot of cutie marks weren’t straightforward. A number of ponies had taken a look at her mark and thought that she was a jeweler.
“Uh...” Liz blinked slightly. A quick glance around town told her that there was no Pokémon around. She hadn’t seen any in the forest, on the field, or on the road. She saw a bird, but it was small, and an odd color, and just seemed… rather too mundane to be a real Pokémon. This just seemed like a world without Pokémon or trainers. “I have no idea.”
“Okay, the basics of flying are super basic, in fact, they are SO basic, that you’ve already figured them out.”
“I have?” Twilight asked Rainbow Dash. She had been roped into flying lessons, and after a bit admitted that she probably needed some. Her first flight over Canterlot had ended up with her in a snowbank on the side of the mountain.
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, you flew from the balcony. You were a natural! Up until that crosswind hit you. Here I was worried I’d have to start from page one!”
“It just seemed like the thing to do,” Twilight said. “I wanted to fly, gave a few flaps, and did.”
“Changing into an alicorn must have given you some flying instincts,” Fluttershy commented quietly. “Actually… when you gave Rarity those wings, she didn’t need to learn how to use them either. That’s kind of odd, now that I-”
“What matters is that it makes our job easier!” Dash declared, “And that means we can start in on the proper flying stuff!” She took off, and began to zip around the area. Dash could fly from one end of the sport track to the other in the time it took most ponies to sneeze, especially right now when she was so hyped. “Speed! Agility! Maneuvers!” Dash punctuated that by doing a loop-de-loop and stopping short in front of Twilight. “Oh man, you are going to LOVE this!”
Twilight blinked. “Well, okay. How do we start?”
“We start by-” rainbow dash stopped short. Huh… “Hey Fluttershy, do you remember how they started in flight camp?”
“Crashing.” Fluttershy replied, frowning slightly.
The smile quickly disappeared from Rainbow Dash’s face. She had hated that part of the camp. “Eh… let’s skip that. Let’s start with the takeoff instead.”
It turns out that skipping it wasn’t really an option, and after pulling Twilight out of a tree for the third time Dash went over it. Crashing was not as simple as it would seem, as it was the art of minimizing damage taken from a foul landing. When to relax, when to tense up, when to curl up into a ball, overall it was much more complex than Twilight had ever thought of crashes to be. Within two hours she was done with flight practice for the day, with a number of strained muscles and bruises, and decided that before Dash did any more training she was going to read up on the subject.
On her way back to the library, Twilight came across Pinkie Pie. “Twilight! Twilight! Guess what!”
Pinkie was excited about something, that was obvious from the way she was bouncing more than usual, and Twilight smiled slightly and prepared for dealing with Pinkie’s usual energy. “What is it, Pinkie?”
“Guess!” Pinkie said as she came to a stop. The smile on her face clearly communicated that she really did want twilight to guess.
Twilight thought about it for a moment. “Rarity has a huge pile of gems that she’s going to sew into a dress for me?”
“Nope! Well, yes, but that’s not what I’m excited about! Well, I am excited about it, but there’s something else that I’m super-duper excited about!” Pinkie began bouncing again.
“Applejack is making pie?” Twilight guessed.
“Nope! Well, I don’t really know what Applejack is doing, I should go find out, but first I want to tell you about what’s going on!”
“Well, what’s going-you’re throwing a party aren’t you?” Of course. That’s the obvious thing. Why didn’t she think of it sooner?
“Nope!”
“What?” this caught Twilight off guard. She had no idea how to deal with this.
“Well, I mean I probably will, but it’s something I’m going to throw a party about!” Pinkie quickly added. She then shook her head in a teasing way. “Me, not throwing a party. You should see the look on your face, you silly wiggle!”
Twilight giggled slightly. “Allright, allright. What’s going on?”
“There’s someone NEW in town!” Pinkie declared, and punctuated this by doing the splits and a flurry of confetti.
“Oh, okay.” Twilight wasn’t terribly surprised. Pinkie never seemed to get tired of greeting new people. Twilight remembered the time that the Wonderbolts came to Ponyville to oversee the cyclone operation. Pinkie had been preparing a party for them since she heard that they would come for it. After the stress of the cyclone, the party was appreciated by all.
“Yep! Yep! She seems like a nice pony, but I don’t think she’s used to being by herself, since she was just kind of wandering around town. She seemed a bit lost.”
“Well, Ponyville isn’t that big of a town, and I’m sure anypony would be willing to help her out.” Twilight said with a smile. “Anyway, I’m going to go back to the Library and clean up. Later, Pinkie!” Pinkie smiled and nodded, and Twilight returned to the library.
When there, she opened the door and saw one earth pony mare studying intently. The books on the main table were an interesting variety; books on basic anatomy, books on magic, books on the history and geography of Equestira, and a wide variety of books on animals and monsters.
Now, Twilight was used to coming home to find a pony reading, but usually it was a pony she knew. And usually they just had one book or two, instead of a wide number of books on a variety of topics.
“Hi Twilight!” Spike said, waving to her. He was standing on the far side of the library. The mare looked up at Twilight. She noted Twilight’s unicorn horn… and her wings. She then went back to the books, but Twilight did notice some confusion.
Twilight walked over to Spike, and waved for him to follow her up the stairs. At the top she asked him, “Who’s the new mare?”
“Her name is Liz,” Spike said, “She said that she had to do a lot of research fast, and asked for… lots of stuff, really. Lots of really simple stuff; I was happy that you had kept those schoolbooks because that’s what she’s looking through.”
Twilight thought about it. “Spike, does that sound familiar to you?”
Spike thought a minute. “No, no not really. What do you mean?”
“Books on anatomy and physiology, on history, on culture. Simple books, like she doesn’t have an education to build on. Like she was suddenly taken out of her world.”
Spike’s eyes widened. “Like when you were turned into a human!”
Twilight nodded. “The question is… does she want us to help, or does she not want others to know? For that matter, this might just be a coincidence.” She thought for a moment. “Well, Spike, just help her as best you can. If it really looks like she needs help, I’ll step up and help, but I’m not going to make her uncomfortable. I’m going to be looking up books on flying.”
A few hours later, Twilight returned to the main room to find one of the books on flying she knew she had in there, and looked over at Liz. She was looking at a textbook on anatomy and physiology, looking between her foreleg and the textbook, and studying how the joint moved. This reminded Twilight of her first experience with hands, and her own examination of how a human body worked.
After a moment, Twilight sat down across the table from Liz. She wanted to be available, but not nosy. Twilight hoped that if Liz had a question about something, she would ask. However, in a few minutes it was obvious to Twilight that she could learn plenty without being nosy.
“Nothing makes sense,” Liz muttered to herself. “Cows. Ponies. Princesses… it’s all completely different. Even the language. Some-pony. No-pony. Every-pony. Colt… filly… mare, stallion. Cutie marks?” She was quiet for a minute as she read. “Innate magic. Okay. Great. In addition to a Zap Cannon of culture shock, there is also magic.” She sighed, and Twilight heard the distinctive noise of a head hitting the table.
She peered around the statue in the center of the table to look at the dismaying pony. After a moment, she said, “You really aren’t used to being a pony, are you?”
Liz flinched, and looked up at Twilight. “It’s really that obvious? Oh, wait, I was talking to myself again. Uh…” Liz tried to think of an explanation. This… alicorn, the books say? This purple pony must think she’s crazy. Muttering to herself that she didn’t know about magic or cutie marks… wait. “You say that like you’re used to things that aren’t ponies… suddenly being ponies.”
Twilight shook her head and walked around toward Liz. “No, it’s actually personal experience. I… spent a few days in a world where everyone stood on two legs, and wore clothes all the time, and picked up things with… hands.” She waved a forehoof at Liz to try and get the point across.
“Humans!” Liz said, her eyes lighting up. “And they share the world with amazing creatures called Pokémon?”
Twilight blinked. “Um… no. Not that I know of.”
“Oh,” Liz said and slumped slightly. For a moment there, she thought for sure she had a way home; just use whatever Twilight had used. Unfortunately, any world without Pokémon was not the world she knew.
Seeing this reaction, Twilight placed a hoof on Liz’s shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll help. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”
“Elizabeth Cortinway,” Liz said in return, “But you can call me Liz.” She smiled slightly. “Seems like ponies and humans have different ways of naming, huh?”
Twilight shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. Now, what do you need help with?”
The pair stayed up long into the night, and Spike ended up making the guest bed for Liz. Although she didn’t want to make Twilight’s life any harder, Liz didn’t have anywhere else to stay, and did appreciate the offer of hospitality. It took her a bit to get to sleep, though, as she was worried about her team… her friends. They were tough, they knew how to survive in the wild, but that didn’t keep her from worrying.
“Goodnight Mrs. Red, Goodnight Mr. Blue.”
One by one, Fluttershy wished her house guests goodnight. Today had been a good day.
“Goodnight Mr. Chipmunk, Mrs. Chipmunk.”
Twilight had gotten her first flying lesson, and it had gone pretty well. At least Fluttershy thought so. No one was hurt much.
“Goodnight Phil, Bob, Joe. If you three toads want to sing later tonight, please remember to go outside first?”
And she had gone to the market, and fed all the animals, and got to talk to Mr. Bear. She had gotten a lot done today.
“Good night, Angel Bunny.”
Flutershy tucked herself in, laid her head on the pillow, and was suddenly jarred by a horrific noise coming from outside. Some sort of buzzing screech, like she had never heard before. She knew all the cries of all the animals, even the ones that usually stayed in the Everfree Forest-
Or, the ones that stayed on the edge of the Everfree Forest. If something was usually further in, then she supposed it was possible that she would never have heard it before.
She listened, carefully, for a while… but there were no other sounds like it. All the animals had been spooked by the noise, but the nighttime chorus picked back up soon enough. Fluttershy went to bed. Maybe… hopefully… it wasn’t anything special.
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Not bad. I spotted a few spelling mistakes, but over all well written. I'll be waiting for the next chapter!
Psh. Alright, ya have my attention. Will fav and upvote.
Hm, what pokemon makes a buzzing screechy noise...Beedrill? Fearow? I bet it's some kind of flying type, though.
Oh well. Moar pls
3088177
Agreed with the fav holding off the upvote until I see more
I'll track your fic so I can see updates... but get an editor. your fic seems well written, but I can't read a Wall O' Text.
And there was a lot of other stuff, too, but it mainly seemed to be rambling on cupcakes. Liz would later look back on this and wonder how it was possible that cupcakes were mentioned on the walls of a couple thousand year old ruin, but at the moment she was too excited at the idea of exploration to realize how odd this was.
PINKIE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW
nothing silly
Damn that was a good start...
Why does this story not have more likes??!?