A Brave New World.
Chapter One.
The sun set on Nimbasa City, but the neon city came even more alive as the moon rose into the sky. Seth Crescent, a young man walked into the Pokémon Centre, and several sets of eyes instantly glared at him.
“Yup, another typical evening.” He ignored the stares and proceeded to the counter. “Heya Nurse Joy, can I get a check up on my Pokémon?”
The nurse smiled, a very forced one perfected with years of practice. “Of course, I have a lot of patients to tend to, so it may take a while.”
Yep, he never got tired of hearing that excuse. Seth knew exactly why she was going to take her time with the examination… but she wouldn’t find anything, she never did.
One of the trainers gave him a dirty look as he took a seat and glanced at the television. Just as Seth got comfortable, the trainer walked over to him, blocking his view.
“…Were your parents glass-makers?” Seth asked, all too used to this. “You’re in my way.”
“And you’re a disgusting waste of life!” the trainer spat back. “You think we’re just gonna let you sit here?”
“The Centre is open to all trainers and I’m doing nothing wrong.” Seth used to get riled up at this, but it got old fast, and now he just didn’t care.
“Nothing wrong!?” his voice rose and now everyone in the lobby was staring. “Everyone here knows who you are. And that you like to fu-”. His was cut off as Seth rose to his feet and stared down at the punk. Ah, the joys of being tall and intimidating.
“Watch your language, there are little kids here.” Seth motioned to a small girl hugging a Clefairy plush. “If you have a problem, then settle it like a trainer. I’ll be here all night, so you can fight me if you want to… you’ll lose anyway.”
The trainer was spitting chips now, unable to form a coherent sentence. Seth got up and walked outside, knowing that he would only cause trouble while he remained there. “I might as well wander around the city for a bit. Maybe even say hi to Elesa.”
An explanation might be in order. The reason why Seth seemed to attract hostility was because he was a rather avid spokesperson, not for a particular product, or a criminal gang like Team Rocket. It was because he was trying to get the laws changed regarding Human/Pokémon relationships. There was a time when such a unity was accepted, but it regressed into taboo and then outright illegal.
Seth himself didn’t do that with his own Pokémon, he simply believed that the laws were stupid and an insult to a Pokémon’s intelligence. Pokémon were sapient creatures and deserved to be treated as such, he had met several trainers that admitted to be with their Pokémon partners (Under strict confidentiality agreements). Seth had also been arrested several times, but without any solid evidence against him, he was always released. He had, however, been banned from any official Pokémon events, such as the Pokémon Gyms and League, as well as Contests.
He couldn’t really care less, but it angered him that his Pokémon suffered because of it.
Some trainers he battled against seemed to be quite rough in battle, sometimes even attacking when he was down or even ordered their Pokémon to attack Seth directly. His Pokémon never let any harm come to him, and he often had to hold them back from retaliating.
‘Doing so makes us exactly what they think we are,’ he would tell them, regardless of whether he thought the stupid pricks deserved it or not.
He entered the theme park where the Gym and the famous Nimbasa Ferris Wheel was, and after a brief stop to purchase an ice-cream, headed for the Gym. He wasn’t banned from entering the facility, or even battling the Gym Leader if they wanted too, he was only restricted from earning a badge.
Didn’t stop a few of the Leaders from ‘accidently’ misplacing a badge in his pocket every now and then…
Elesa was one such leader and as she saw him strut down the catwalk in her Gym, she broke out into a wide smile.
“Hey Seth! It’s been a while!” she gave him a hug, lasting more than a few seconds, before looking him over. “Okay, you seem upset.” He didn’t look it, but Elesa had learned to read his stony expressions.
“It’s nothing, just a stupid kid getting under my skin.”
Elesa hugged him again and led him to the back of the Gym. “Don’t let them get to you… I’m rooting for you, you know.”
“Thanks Elle,” She wrinkled her nose at the nickname, but let it slide regardless.
“So what’s up? Sightseeing or something?”
Seth shook his head, “Actually, just needed to chill for a bit… especially for what’s about to come next.”
Elesa frowned, he never got right to the point in a conversation, it was one of his less redeeming qualities. “Next?”
He opened his phone and showed her an email he received a few days ago. “It’s from Cynthia, the Sinnoh Pokémon Master. She wants to meet with me.”
“And you’re going?” Elesa had never met the woman personally, but she knew that her authority within the League was quite substantial, and that she was one of the most powerful trainers on the planet. “It could be a trap you know… you really like stirring the League up.”
“There is that,” Seth agreed. “But this could also be my big chance. Cynthia is probably one of the most influential trainers around. If I can get her to agree with me, then it’ll be a huge step forward towards my goal.”
Elesa stepped forward and hugged him, “You’re pretty stubborn, so I don’t think I can change your mind… just, be careful alright.”
Seth nodded, “Don’t worry, I’ve got a backup plan if things go south. So don’t worry too much okay. Don’t want that pretty face getting worry lines.”
Elesa laughed and struck a pose. “True enough.” The doors to her Gym flew open and several Pokémon entered. A Sylveon charged up the runway, tackling Seth to the ground as she leapt into his arms. An Absol, Charizard and Sandshrew followed closely behind.
“Oof, hello to you too Rika,” Seth groaned. “Did you guys come all the way from the Centre to find me?”
“Vee, Sylvee!” ‘Naturally, we knew you’d be here!’
Elesa looked at his team and then to the little Sandshrew. “Who’s this little guy? A newbie?”
Seth nodded, “Found him in the Desert Resort. He was being attacked by a bunch of Cacturne, but was too injured to be left there. I intended to release him after he was healed, but he followed me anyway.” He picked up the little Ground-type and held him out to Elesa. “Heath, this is my best friend, Miss Elesa. Elle, this is Heath.”
“Nice to meet you~” she cooed, rubbing the little guys head. “Try and keep this one in line huh? Seth has a penchant for getting into trouble.”
“Hey!”
“Char!” ‘True enough’ Charizard nodded, heeding the sage-like wisdom.
Seth put Heath down and scratched Rika and his Absol, Selene behind the ears, earning a happy sigh from the both of them. “I suppose we should head off, need to find a place to stay for the night.”
“You could always stay here!” Elesa said, a little too quickly, her face turning a slight shade of pink.
“I can’t bother you like that, not with my reputation-“
“It’s not a problem at all!” Elesa grabbed his arm, looking up at him. “No-one knows you’re here and I don’t care even if they did. You’re my friend and I won’t let you sleep outside tonight.”
Seth blinked and then smiled, “You’re pretty stubborn too ya know.” It made him happy that he had some friends like Elesa; he didn’t know what he’d do without them. “Thanks Elle.”
***
As Seth lay in the bed Elesa had provided for him, and telling him her door was open if he needed anything, he thought about what the future would bring. “I wonder what Cynthia wants? If it’s something positive… or if what Elle says is true and it’s a trap.”
Rika climbed up onto his bed, snuggling close to him. “Sylvee?” ‘You okay?’
“I’m fine,” Seth hugged his Pokémon closely as his eyes closed. “Just a little worried is all.”
‘What do we do if gets nasty?” Absol looked up to Ignis, Seth’s Charizard, who sat in the corner of the room.
‘What we always do, protect our Trainer with all our power. If we face a Champion in order to do so, then so be it.’
Selena nodded, Seth saved her life after all, he had saved all of them. In turn, the Pokémon swore a life debt to the young man. If Arceus himself got in the way, then they would knock him down.
She sighed as she climbed up to snuggle Seth as well. ‘I just wish we could live in peace…’
They all suddenly felt very tired, as a distant voice resonated in their minds.
“Rest now my children, for when you awake, a whole new world shall be your home!”
***
Pandemonium, that would probably be an apt term to use for this situation. The entire world of Equus was in a state of panic and confusion, but one pony remained oblivious thus far.
Apple Fritter was a hard working mare. She would rise with Celestia’s sun, harvest her small orchard of around a dozen trees, and then spend most of the morning preparing a plethora of apple products. Fritters, pies, cobbler, danish, custards, dried apple chips and just leaving some as is.
A little after noon, she would load up her wagon and head for the produce market to sell her wares to hungry ponies. Her family thought she was crazy for moving to Canterlot,
‘Y’all can’t sell to those petty snobs.’
‘They wouldn’t know good eatin’s if it jumped up an’ bit ‘em.’
‘Yer cousin Applejack could always use the help.’
That last one annoyed her, living close to Ponyville meant that she helped out quite a bit at Sweet Apple Acres, raising new barns. (They got destroyed… a lot.) She would help with harvest season, cider season and even Zap Apple Season on occasion.
She harboured no ill will towards Applejack, or the rest of her kin. Fritter could never hate her family no matter what, but she wondered if Applejack knew just how blessed she was. She owned the biggest Apple Farm on Equus, had many wonderful friends and was probably one of the most famous ponies around being an Element of Harmony Bearer.
Fritter did the best she could with what she had, but it never seemed to be good enough for anypony.
But as for not being able to sell? Well, that was a matter of fine tuning the right sales pitch. She found that Canterlot ponies would buy anything if you knew how to sell rather than what you were selling.
Apple Juice? How about a figure slimming Apple tonic?
Apple Pie? More like a sweet pâtisserie.
Apple Fritter? The cute mare that sold them delicious treats of course~
But back to the topic at hand, Equus was panicking over the emergence of strange new creatures that seemed to appear overnight, but for Apple Fritter it was a pretty ordinary morning.
Until she went to check on her apple trees.
Buzzing around the delicious fruit were several bugs. Very big bugs.
The huge insects looked like giant bees, with large pink eyes and massive spears on their forelimbs. Apple Fritter took one look at the bugs, tilted her hat downwards and raised her voice.
“WHUT IN THE HECK ARE Y’ALL DOING IN MAH TREES!?”
The sudden yell scared the Beedrill out of their wits and they made a quick exit, buzzing off to somewhere else.
“And that’s that!” Fritter smiled. The giant bees had eaten a few of her apples, but there were enough to work with. And the potions that she mixed with the soil would ensure that she would have another crop within a few days.
“Now to bake~” she hummed happily, wrapping an apron around herself and getting out her baking trays. “And maybe I should tell the guard or somepony about those giant bees. They could be trouble.”
***
The first thing that Seth noticed was that he no longer felt like he was asleep in a soft bed. Opening his eyes slowly the second thing to assault his senses was the smell, wherever he was, it was nasty. Once his eyes adjusted, it all made sense as he saw he was lying in a dank alley.
‘Oh this is just great. What the hell happened?’ He didn’t recall drinking, maybe a prank by a psychic Pokémon? He tried to get up, but his legs suddenly gave out and he fell hard onto his back.
“Ow! What the-?” He went to grab the back of his head and noticed his hands… or lack thereof.
What he saw were large, fluffy black paws.
“The fuck?” He looked down at the rest of his body, only to view the soft belly of a Luxray. “This cannot be happening.” He rolled over onto his belly and tried to get up again, this time on all fours. “Okay, so it’s kind like crawling, sort of.” He tried taking a step forward, but the timing of his leg movements was off and he face planted the ground.
“Ow… again.” This couldn’t be a dream, it hurt way too much to be a dream. “Alright, so this could be a few things, First; A powerful illusion by a Psychic Pokémon.” He looked around the alleyway, and it seemed normal enough. Cobblestone paving beneath his feet, (paws). Stone brickwork walls and looking up he saw that the colour of the sky meant it was either dawn or dusk.
“Guess taking a look around would be the next step.” He slowly made his way forward, stumbling a few times as he worked on moving his front and back legs together. “This is seriously harder than it looks.”
He squinted as he emerged from the end of the alley, the rising sun shining brightly. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and looked around some more. “Something tells me I’m not in Nimbasa anymore.”
The city he was in looked huge, large stone buildings with shingle roofs. Wide streets bustled with activity and in the distance he could see what appeared to be a fairy tale castle. But what was most intriguing was the occupants of the city. A range of multi-coloured Ponyta, only a bit smaller and had massive, adorable eyes. Some had wings and soared through the sky, while others had horns like a Rapidash and appeared to have Psychic powers.
“Where the hell am I?” He approached one of the Ponyta, slowly as not to scare it and mostly so he wouldn’t fall over again. Once he got close enough, he tried calling out, “Excuse me?”
Fleur De Lis was having an interesting morning, after leaving her home earlier for her morning run, she had heard that odd creatures had been appearing around the city. But during her run, the only things she had seen were some odd-looking birds.
“I wonder why everypony is in such a tizzy?” she wondered aloud as some unicorns ran past her, shrieking loudly.
“Luxray!” the sudden voice from behind her grabbed the mare’s attention and Fleur turned her head to see a large black lion-creature standing right behind her. She decided that there was only one choice of action that a mare of her stature and poise should take.
She screamed loudly and bolted in the opposite direction, prying to Celestia that she wasn’t being pursued.
***
Seth watched the pony scream and run like hell, so much for not scaring it. Every time he tried to get close to one of them after that, it was always the same response. He started to believe that this was a futile venture, especially when he saw a rather happy Houndoom chasing a bunch of the creatures around.
“Way to make my life easier,” Seth muttered, but it was good to see that there were other Pokémon around. “So I’m not the only one here. Was that Houndoom also a former human? I should have tried to get its attention.”
He decided to just continue wandering aimlessly. He figured that he’d run into another Pokémon eventually…
***
Canterlot seemed, different. Well, at least Apple Fritter seemed to think so as she made her way to the market. She figured that the giant bees might have been something from the magic school; they were always doing weird things there. But it would seem that it was a tad more widespread than that. Creatures of all kinds were wandering the streets, and though the guard seemed to be doing their best to capture them all, there were a lot of them.
“Maybe I should head back home?” she wondered aloud as she rounded a corner, and bumped into something hard. “Ow, what in tarnation?” She looked up as the gleaming eyes of a giant blue crocodile stared back down at her. She couldn’t get a word out as its gaze shifted from her to her wagon as it sniffed the air loudly.
“Feraligatr!” its voice was deep as it took a step towards her, its hungry gaze still fixed on the Earth Pony.
“Uh, y-y’all want to buy a pie?” Well it was worth a shot anyway.
“FERALIGATR!” It roared loudly, causing Fritter to scream. Giant bees were one thing, but a giant pony-eating crocodile!? Her shaking legs refused to move as she waited to be chomped on, but the attack never came.
“Gator!?”
“LUXRAY!”
Fritter opened her eyes at the sound of the second voice and saw a black lion-like critter standing between her and the monster. The strangest thing was that they seemed to be having a conversation.
“Lux, Luxray!” “What are you doing? Why are you attacking this creature?”
“Gator! Feraligatr, tor!” “She has food, I’m hungry and lost!”
Seth sighed, he could understand those feelings, but still. “Look, I am too. But attacking these creatures may lead to a whole bunch of problems.”
“So what? I’m supposed to starve to death?” Seth shook his head and looked back at the pony.
“Hang on, maybe I can get it to help us…” Then something Feraligatr said clicked in his mind.
“Did you say ‘she’?”
“She has the scent of a female… and apples, you can’t smell it?” Seth shook his head, the truth was that he could smell a ton of things, his nose as a Luxray was awesome. But there were so many that he couldn’t make heads or tails of them all.
“My senses are all over the place right now.” Revealing that he used to be human may turn the situation sour, so he figured that he’d keep a lid on that for now. But first thing’s first. He turned towards Apple Fritter, who was slowly backing away. She flinched when he looked at her and he lowered his head and ears, trying to look non-threatening. He put a paw to his tummy and rubbed it before pointing to her wagon. It didn’t take long for the mare to catch on.
“Y’all just want some apples?” Luxray nodded and after shooting a glare at Feraligatr, he nodded too. “Well, I suppose I could help ya out.” She opened one of the side panels and pulled out two Apple Pies, which the Feraligatr suddenly snatched up and ran off down the road, yelling something to Seth.
“Yeah, just steal my pie… asshole.” He looked back at Apple Fritter, only to feel a sharp pain in his stomach, followed by a light-headed feeling. “Guess I was hungrier than I thought” he muttered to himself before passing out.
***
As his dreamless sleep faded, Seth was awoken by the sweet scent of baked apples. A powerful rumble in his tummy reminded him of why he had passed out in the first place, and then he saw the plate of delicious apple fritters next to him.
Those fritters didn’t last long.
“You must’ve been pretty danged hungry!” the voice near him grabbed his attention once the fried treats had been demolished. “You feel better now?”
Seth took in his surroundings, noticing that he was inside some sort of home. It looked pretty cosy, from the comfy couch that he seemed to be laying on, to the little knickknacks that filled the living room he was in.
“Where… where am I?” He looked to his left to see the yellow creature from earlier. (They looked kinda like Ponyta… I’ll call them ponies for now, seems better than ‘creature’ anyway). “Did you bring me here?”
Apple Fritter giggled as she took the licked clean plate into the kitchen. “So I take it that yer name is Luxray? Given that’s all ya seem to say. If yer wondering where you are. Ah brought you back to my place after you passed out.” She came back into the living room and took a seat on the couch next to him. “You saved me from that big crocodile critter, so ah figured that I’d look out for you in return.”
So to her, all she could hear is PokéSpeak? That’s annoying, but his Pokémon seemed to make do with just that and physical expressions. She got off of the couch and bowed his head respectfully.
“Aw, ya don’t hafta thank me,” she paused and thought for a second. “Do… do you, understand me?”
Seth nodded and Apple Fritter giggled again. “Well, ah might as well introduce myself properly then. My name is Apple Fritter, the only apple farmer in all of Canterlot.”
“I’m Seth,” but all that came out was a single, ‘Luxray’. Life was so not fair.
“Well then Luxray what do ya plan to do now?” Fritter looked out of her living room window and sighed. “Things still look pretty hectic out there… you can stay here if ya want. I wouldn’t mind the company actually.”
Seth nodded again and Fritter left to prepare a room he could stay in. Seth in the meantime, lay back on the couch and closed his eyes, losing himself in thought.
“What a day, I go to sleep as a human, wake up as a Luxray in a land filled with multi-coloured Ponyta and now I’m living with one of them… all before dinner.”
As confused as he was about the how’s and why’s, he could get to those later. What mattered first was finding his Pokémon and maybe even some of his friends. He wondered if Elesa or Skyla made it here somehow.
“Rika, Selene, Ignis… and Heath, where are you guys?” Tears stung at his eyes and he buried his face in a pillow. “This sucks!”
***
Apple Fritter tucked in a sheet, before it occurred to her if Luxray would even sleep in a bed. She dragged her hoof down her face and headed back for the living room, it would be rude if she didn’t at least ask. As she turned the corner and stopped, as a peculiar sound filled her ears. She peeked into the living room and saw Luxray, his head buried in her couch as his body shook.
Was… was he crying!? She decided to approach him slowly and very gently, put a hoof on his back. The black lion flinched at the touch, but didn’t do anything else. She ran her hoof gently through his fur and cooed softly.
“Hey, it’ll be okay huh?” She didn’t know what was wrong with him, but there was no way she wasn’t going to help him out. If you looked at him, he seemed like a strange sort of animal, but lying here, like this. He seemed like he was so much more than that.
“Apple Fritter’s here for you okay? I’ll help you out.”
Awesome, an ANW,ANW fic from the author of my favourite pokemon fic! I'm favouriting the shit out of this!
I knew you would eventually get caught up with this.
Welp, you got me hooked on the first chapter. And you also have me hoping for a ship between Seth+Elsa, because I am starting to get rather tired of all the human+pokemon relations.
Now, right from the get-go I like Seth more than most of the other side-stars. He doesn't have a full team, letting us get a but more focused on the characters. At the same time he is starting out alone, making wonderfully evil since he now as lost his friends.
Also the reference to the main cannon is nice.
Welcome to the collective!
I FOUND SOMEONE LIKE ME!encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRolRrBpMvUwsMnHi4KX5MdLSsPH2fVVR3B3bH66efeNBoNboT2N2W20_c
This looks to have great promise. Looking forward to more in the relatively near future!
Aww yiss another one of these
it's good, needs line skips between dialogue from different characters though. I wonder if Gene ever met this guy...
4400730 - Dunno yet. That all depends on Zuesdemigod131.
4399419 - Resistance is futile.
This needs to continue please
4399081 hey prime! Didn't know you were here too!
4402202
Small world
4402355 indeed.
By the way who did your profile pic? It's awesome!
today I got onto fimfiction and immediately when it loaded and I saw this cover art I was all like "LUXRAY LUXRAY LUXRAY LUXRAY LUXRAY!!!!!!!!!'
4405851 - Luxray's are so floofy! Expect lots of huggles in this fic.
4406312 yay! Luxray is my fave poke
I can haz more fwitters?
Snrk… I haven't seen anyone comment on this…
Am I missing something here? Is Kai another name for Seth?
Oh, and a couple of "whoopsies" moments:
One too many.
Comma time!
Is it just me, or is Fritter one heck of a brave pony?
I'm intrigued. I'll continue following this! I've been meaning to look at the side stories anyway…
wow you wrote side story to A New World, a New Way too?
AWESOME!
4407057 - Thanks for pointing those out. Kai isn't another name for Seth, just one I use so often in a lot of other stuff like fics and rp's that I wrote it by accident.
Apple Fritter isn't brave, she just isn't scared by bugs. Wait till she meets Ghost types though
4406914 - Apple Fritter is mine! *hiss*
4408067 give him/her the fritter. I have neurotoxin that I don't want to waste.
4408067 Well, I'm glad that I'm the only one who seemed to catch and care about that slip-up.
I guess it's just me then. I mean, I do have an almost deathly fear of spiders and various creepy crawlies.
Ghost-types just are either amusing or slightly shocking. (*cough*Phantump*cough*)
4412295 - Aw, I have severe arachnophobia! It sucks huh?
I made a mistake too, I didn't mean to imply that Apple Fritter isn't brave. She is quite brave actually, she just tries not to let strange things faze her, and nopony or no pokemon, messes with her apples!
The poor mare seriously thought she was gonna get eaten by that Feraligatr though.
4399254 - Whoo!
4399980 - Like you?
YYEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!! man, this storyline is turning into the next 5s/4!!!
I like the premise of this story... I will definitely be following this story since I really want to know where it is going.
4414134
4416543
Thanks you guys~
4411887 psssssssssssssst.............. him
4417316 *injects with neurotoxin [<>] = *
4417389 - *Eats a Pecha Berry* Poisoning removed. Nice try guys, but teh Apple mare is mine!
4418428 I feel like this story in your eye of Azkaban and the prisoner fans want of the a lot of test subjects chambers tutorial of for the prisoner of Azkaban Azkaban the world of Azkaban the the world of of the world turned CAKECAKECAKE!!!!! upside upside down down to the Aperture to be a normal chair potato glados meets nightmere moon is is the world world turned out ofAzkaban Azkaban the prisoner fans of Azkaban wynn and downloaded from science fiction and robbers morph the most popular articles on fire this red Sox are dumb enough of a empire silly to eat grow up in sonic and mariop to be a reflection and robbers morph thetrains derpytongue2p to the Apertureand mario galaxy and is witchcraft a steam and robbers morph smart enough of a steam engine and the prison sentence in rainbow of the world remix remix of Azkaban and and robbers. Main 6 are all alicorns now. You happy? I autocorrect
4418585 - ..........um......wat?
4418906 I turned on autocorrect
4414010 Yeah, it's the worst. Nothing gets worse than a somewhat irrational fear of something that enjoys appearing frequently in one's home!
That's good for Apple Fritter then. I suppose ensuring one's harvest would be quite the important task. Though I doubt anyone should blame her for the Feraligatr; anything with a giant maw or anything that is named Rampardos should cause any sane person to run away screaming.
ok stop me if you heard this one. What's the difference between a loudly colored character with superpowers right out of a bad kimba fanfic and a luxray?
nothing!
4420895 Well, some pony's feeling negative.
4417389 I have dead
4422403 *mario game over music*
4422467 this game hacks
4427181 Mari0 is better cuz you have the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device
4427368 all I wanted was some fwitters
4430816 ikr can you have cake?
4430816 - Okay... *hands over some freshly baked apple fritters*
4432045 *untrustingly accepts then continues to make rarity nom nom noises*
Hey, there goes Fang!
I like it but i hope they can communicate somehow^^
But for now keep it this way, it seems to be pretty funny and a good story too.
Oh i even can´t really tell why i like itt so much, i allready want a sequel later or a long story, and i hope the world or even he stayed there and like this
The side stories are all so compelling, like the main plotline.
troll.me/images/creepy-willy-wonka/please-tell-me-more.jpg