A New World, An Old Haunt

by Professor Frogenshtein

Ch 12: Wood you kindly?

Frothing Stein furrowed his brows as he looked back at the town, watching the little bat-pony, Moonbreeze, wave goodbye at the group's retreating forms from her seat atop the still-sleeping Iron Bar as Stein followed the ghosts back to the mansion.

"Are you sure it's alright to just leave like this?"

Dante, floating next to Stein at the front of the group, shrugged.

"The girl- or, filly I guess- will be fine now that her soul's been put back, and that Iron Bar mare will wake up sooner or later; hypnosis only lasts about 3 to 5 turns."

"Three whatnow?"

"Three to five hours." Dante glanced at Stein, an eyebrow raised. "By the way, what was with that pony's wings?"

"She's a bat-pony," Stein replied, turning to face forward, "it's a type of pegasus pony with leathery wings."

"Is that just... a thing now?"

Stein shrugged, levitating his hat off to fiddle with the brim. "I don't actually know the specifics, but basically yes, they're a thing."

Plus the author couldn't be bothered to look it up.

Stein was then bonked on the head by a pine cone.

Ow! There aren't even any pine trees in this forest!

Stein was then bonked on the head a second time by a particularly large acorn.

OW! What the heck, man?!

Stein was then bonked on the head by a pair of cherries

Ow.

Half a dozen pink eggs

Ow- wait, what?

And a spiked metal seed-egg-thing

Okay now you're just being silly.

You didn't say "ow."

I believe "ow" is already implied by this point.

Stein looked up at the canopy, frowning. "Alright," he said, shaking a hoof in the air, "who's the wise guy dropping seemingly random objects on my head?"

"Cherubi!"

"Hmm?" Looking down, Stein saw that the pair of cherries that hit him had a face- two faces, in fact.

"Dan, buddy, look!" Jack hopped to the front of the group to point at the rather large fruit. "Forest pokémon!"

"So they are," said Dante, smiling down at the large acorn, "what an odd collection."

Glancing around, Stein saw that all of the 'objects' had faces, and were moving around.

"Cherubi!" said the cherry-like creature, "Cherub rubi cher!"

"I don't-" the unicorn started, before jumping slightly in realization. "Oh, the translation spell must've worn off." Stein's horn glowed slightly again before he looked down at the small pokémon. "You were saying?"

"I said 'You were in the way of our parachuting practice,'" was the reply. "I'm Cherubi, by the way." Cherubi gestured toward the other, smaller cherry. "This is my second head!"

"I'm full of nutrients," said the second head, "but you can't have any."

Stein blinked behind his goggles. "...Charming. And the rest are?"

"I'm Seedot," said the acorn.

"Pineco," said the pine cone.

"Ferroseed," said the metal spiky thing, "sorry for any concussions or lacerations you might have."

Stein waved a hood. "I've had worse; I'm more worried about these eggs."

"We are Exeggcute," the eggs replied in unison. "It takes more than that to harm us."

"But some of you have cracks..."

"Those are natural; we hatched with these cracks."

"An egg hatched from an egg?" Stein was getting a little confused.

"Actually," Dante interjected, floating over, "six eggs hatched from the same egg."

Stein blinked again. "... I'm not going to ask."

"Good," the yamask replied, "because I don't know either. Not my field of research."

"Not mine either. By the way," Stein turned back to the cherubi, "did you say 'parachuting practice'?"

"Yeah!" Cherubi hopped up and down excitedly, her second head dangling from its stem, "We were all taking turns jumping off the treetops."

Stein looked around, puzzled. "You don't seem to have any parachutes, though."

"We were just practicing the jumping off part," Seedot called as he attempted to shimmy his way back up the nearest tree, "the parachute part comes after we actually find some parachutes."

The pineco spoke up from its place on the ground. "I still say we should have asked the whispering tree and her hollow ward for assistance."

"We disagree," Exeggcute shivered, "the empty one made us very nervous."

"It was after my nutrients!" shouted Cherubi's second head.

"Wait, wait," Dante interrupted, "what whispering tree?"

---

The trees of the deep forest trembled imperceptibly as an unknown entity contacted their roots. Were the trees capable of independent movement, they would have shrank away from the touch; it would not have mattered, for their roots were then seized by the entity as it linked itself with them.

The forest regarded the entity, and was unable to process what it found. It felt plantlike and rigid, yet it moved of its own power. It was unnatural, yet it was at one with nature. It reeked with the aura of death, yet it was swathed in an unmistakable cloak of life.

{What are you,} the forest seemed to ask, unable to reconcile with the strange and contradictory creature, {are you flora or fauna? Alive or dead?}

{I am all these things,} the entity responded, and the woods were not expecting it to speak to them in the language of trees. {Mostly, I am a traveler,} it continued, {brought from another world, and I seek my fellow travelers; they feel of death, as I do, though they still move.}

{We have sensed such creatures,} the forest said. {They passed through our forest to reach the clearing, where the hoofed ones live. They have begun passing through again to reach the other side; we can show you the way.}

{My sincerest thanks,} spoke the entity, {but I have nothing to give in return.}

{There is no need,} the forest replied, {though we must ask this: many new lives have entered our forest, be they plant, animal, or something in between; what sort of beings are you travelers?}

The trees had no concept of emotion, only of existence; as such, the smile the entity gave was lost on them.

{We are called 'pokémon'.}

And as the forest guided the traveling 'pokémon' to its fellows, the Equus trees took no notice of the hollow, chitinous exoskeleton grasping the bark of the traveler's head.

It did not mind being unnoticed; it did not mind anything.

---

"Remind me again what we're looking for?"

I sighed as I turned back to Frothing Stein, twirling my moustache like a nervous habit.

"We're looking for a tree that can move and has arms; trust me, you'll know when you see her."

"Her?"

"Dan, buddy! I think I found something!"

I turned my attention to Jack, but I knew not to get my hopes up when he 'finds' something. As such, I wasn't surprised to see him holding up something that was definitely not a clue.

"Jack," I deadpanned, "that's an apple."

The gourgeist blinked, looking at the fruit in his hands. "Oh." He blinked again. "Can I have it? I'm hungry."

"Ghosts don't need to eat."

Jack looked at me expectantly.

I sighed again. "Yes, you can have it."

I rubbed my temples as Jack bounced away happily; even after I'm dead, my team can still give me a headache.

"Thanos," I called, catching the dusclops' attention, "any luck?"

"None at all," he replied, flicking the yellow knob on top of his head, "blasted antenna is still on the fritz."

I clenched my teeth frowned. "We'll have to get that looked at when we get back to the mansion. Speaking of which, we should hurry up our search; I told Tesla to bring the mansion around to meet us outside the forest at sunset, and you all remember what happened last time we left him alone in the mansion for more than 6 hours."

Chandler bobbed into view, waving an appendage. "We could always--"

"NO, Chandler," I interrupted, "we're not going to set the trees on fire and see which one screams."

"You're no fun, daddy."

"Technically," Lucius said as he popped out of my shadow, "he's not alone; Banafrit is there too."

I turned back to Chandler. "After careful review, the committee has decided that your idea has merit."

"Yay!"

"Wait," called a voice from the forest, "I'm right here! I'm over here!"

"Aww..."

I smiled as a trevenant pushed through the treeline into the path we were taking.

"Good to see you're alright," I said, "just let me give the signal and we can head back to the mansion."

I nodded to Lucius, who rose quickly into the sky.

"Dazzling Gleam!"

A bright flash shot across the sky; I nodded, waving Frothing Stein over.

"Let's get introductions out of the way; this is Frothing Stein, beverage magnate and fellow scientist, and he's been helping us get around and find the crew." I turned to Stein. "Stein, this is our team's gardener and horticultural expert; her name is Acacia."

And as Stein shook hands-- er, claws-- hooves? Whatever. As Stein greeted the ghostly tree, he looked at me and spoke.

"She doesn't drop acorns, does she?"

Author's Note:

Hey look, another chapter!

Yes, Jack, another chapter.

Will our intrepid heroes reach the mansion in time to save the Queen from Tesla's antics?
Who (or what) is this mysterious hollow creature attached to Acacia's head?
Why is Thanos' antenna receiving such heavy interference?
Can the forest pokémon master the art of parachuting?

Find out... I dunno, eventually I guess.

Comments

[LakieLegion]

Who (or what) is this mysterious hollow creature attached to Acacia's head?

are you seriously asking this? after calling it chitinous earlier? you sir are much too obvious

[Professor Frogenshtein]

5298954

Look, I have to at least pretend that there's some kind of mystery. Think of the children, man!

[LakieLegion]

5299381 good point