Chapter 17
Officer Jenny stood baffled as the pony that laid in front of her had done a complete transformation. It still resembled a pony in its general form, but that’s where the similarities stopped. Its legs had several holes in them, as if a Rhydon had gone to town on them. Its whole body was covered in a black exoskeleton, the closest resemblance Jenny could link it too was some other bug types that she had seen. It had a horn, just like a unicorn but it had bug-like wings as well. It had no mane or hair, only what looked to be a fin that went down the scruff of its neck.
All in all, Jenny had absolutely no clue on what she was dealing with. The first thing that sprung to mind was a Ditto, but if what the bartender had said was right then this… creature was a famous author. Which had to mean that he had been there longer than the six days it had been since Pokémon were brought to that world.
Jenny glanced behind herself to see if any other pony had noticed what had went down in that alleyway or heard anything, but the stacks of trash provided a near perfect blockade, preventing anyone from the outside to view in without going around them and into the alleyway itself.
Jenny`s head snapped back to the creature as it groaned in pain and began to stir. It had stopped moving after its transformation. The ember that hit it in the horn may have had something to do with that, but it had come to and was waking up now nonetheless.
“Stop!” Jenny sneered as she stepped forward and pressed one of her paws against its throat. “Explain yourselves! What are you!” She demanded as she put more weight on her paw. She had to use most of her weight due to her small stature.
The bug creature under her began to laugh slightly in a pained voice.
“Y-you really don't know anything, do you?” He laughed before Jenny shut him up. She smacked his horn, making him yelp in pain as it was still sore from being burned.
“I know that you bought some Pokémon from a unicorn named Shady, that was abused or worse! What did you do with them?” She growled.
“Y-you are here about that?” He said as he was gritting his teeth, trying to ignore the splitting headache he was having from having his horn abused. “Yeah, I bought those little pets from him. They have been very useful so far, they just needed a little… persuasion!” Jenny could feel her rage grow as he showed her a sickening grin. She had heard that wording before and knew very well what it meant. She could feel her flames building up in her chest, it would be so satisfying to burn him to a crisp.
“What did you do with them? And more importantly, where are you keeping them?” She sneered as she hit his horn again. She really was not one to normally use violence like this, but she could not show him any sign of weakness at all.
“W-wouldn't you like to know?” He muttered as small amounts of tears had begun forming in his large, pupilless eyes from the amount of pain he was in. But he kept defying her, much to her aggravation.
“Yes… I would like to know.” She used the same trick she had used earlier, and made a small ball of fire and kept slowly moving it towards his face. “And you will tell me!” She smiled at him.
“Y-you wouldn't!” He was right. Normally Jenny would not resort to such measures. But it was an unique situation that she was in, and if the police of that town were as xenophobic as the rest of the ponies she had met, then she would likely get no help there. She had forgiven Ethan because she had understood that he really was a good person… and that sometimes… things like that was necessary.
With that in mind, she pressed the floating flame ball against the chitin between his eyes and held it there for a few moments as she kept him quiet by wrapping a few of her tails around his mouth.
“I’m sorry. What was that?” Jenny asked again as she took the flame ball back but kept her tails in place as he kept squirming around in pain and she could hear his muffled screams. “I believe that you had something that you wanted to tell me?” She asked once he had calmed down enough so that she could remove her tails once more.
“Y-you crazy bitch!” Rigid Paper spat as tears were now clearly running down his cheeks from his large, blue eyes. It had been apparent that he had been trying to hold it back earlier, but the pain from having the flame held against his horn for that long was simply too much for him to handle. “I… I have them at my house here in town!” Jenny smiled as he finally gave her what she was looking for.
“See, was that so hard?” Jenny asked with a smug look on her face. She had managed to get another confession. She had initially felt a little bad about the means that she had to use to get them, but the had pushed those thought out of the way.
“I… will fucking end you!” Rigid growled at her as he had regained some of his strenght. “Y-you think this changes anything?” He laughed. “You have saved two pathetic creatures that would have been better off dead, and for what? A guaranteed death sentence!” He glared at her with a sickening smile on his face.
“There won't be much that you can do once you are put behind bars!” Jenny countered as Rigid Paper`s grin only widened.
“You think that the police or the guard actually scares me?” He laughed as he stared up at Jenny from where he laid. “Bits can buy anything! And I would be a fool if I did not already have a few members of the force on my payroll!” He showed her a grin that made her want to knock his teeth in. “There is nothing that you can do to me that I can’t undo!”
Jenny thought to herself, considering the options that she currently had. On the one paw, punching him really, really hard would feel extremely satisfying. She would even go so far as to say that her life would be missing some crucial pieces to it if she did not punch him. The sound as her paw connected with his cheek, sending him reeling back in pain from the blow. Maybe it would even knock him unconscious.
On the other paw. She could not punch him really, really hard in the face and turn him over to the cops instead. But if what he said was really true, then that would ultimately change nothing. Of course, he could be lying… but she had seen his type before. They liked to flaunt their power in other’s faces, and as much as she hated to admit it, they rarely lied. Mostly because they had no reason to do so. He was obviously not a pony… but she could not say that she knew enough about Equestria to say if that meant anything. The fact that she had already roughed him up pretty badly would probably be enough for them to arrest her. Especially with how little the ponies of that town liked Pokémon.
After having considered all the options, Jenny came to the conclusion that punching him in the face would be a far more satisfying short term solution. And with that in mind, Jenny reared back and punched Rigid Paper as hard as she could. She may not be a Fighting-type, but Arceus damned. She could deliver some hard punches if she wanted too. Or maybe it would be considered a kick since she really did not have any arms anymore… she really wasn't sure.
Jenny winced as she made a little more noise than she had wanted to. Rigid Paper had flown back, straight into a couple of trash cans. Luckily he had been knocked unconsiouss by the blow. Jenny hurried over to his form and began searching him for his key. He had told her that he kept the Pokémon in his house, so that was where she was going. She would get those Pokémon then get out of town as fast as possible.
She found the keys that she was looking for in his saddlebacks and went on her way. Leaving behind a battered, bruised, and unconscious creature in the alleyway. She really had to ask Mary Care what that thing was when she got back.
Finding the home of Rigid Paper was not that bad. Most of the houses had mail boxes with names on them. Jenny had to admit that the house itself was rather modest for a famous and possibly rich author. It looked mostly like almost every other house in the town, but, as she had learned a long time ago, appearances can be deceiving.
She had lingered a bit longer than she would have normally liked, but she wanted to make sure that no other pony saw her enter that house. They might get suspicious since it belonged to a member of their town and report it.
Finally, after a small while, the last pony in sight rounded the corner, leaving Jenny completely alone to complete her work. She felt a bad taste in her mouth as she realized that what she was doing was basically breaking and entering, but she did not have the luxury to worry about such things. Besides, she had a couple of Pokémon to rescue.
To her relief, the key worked and she let herself in, quickly shutting the door behind herself as to not be noticed by any bypassers.
Just like the outside, the inside of the house seemed completely normal to Jenny as she walked in and looked around. But he had admitted to the fact that he was keeping those Pokémon there.
“Hello!? Anybody here?” She shouted as she slowly made her way from the hallway into what seemed to be the kitchen. She could not hear anything, but as she looked around she noticed that something felt a little off. She went over to the fridge and when it opened it her suspicion was confirmed. It was completely empty. She had not seen any food at all in the kitchen.
“Weird…” She commented as she continued into the living room. “I’m here to help you! If you can hear me, please shout out!” Jenny yelled and this time she could hear something.
It was way too faint for her to understand what was being said… but she had definitely heard a voice. A voice that came from underneath her.
“A basement… they must be in the basement.” She said to herself a she quickly began searching for an entrance to said basement. It did not take long for her to find the door that she was looking for, unfortunately the door was locked and none of the key`s that she had fit.
“I dont have time for this… Ember!” She unleashed her ember upon the lock, effectively burning through it in seconds. Jenny threw open the door and hurried down as quickly as she could. At the bottom of the stairs, she saw what she was looking for. The cellar itself was just a large rectangular room that also had a drain located in the middle of the floor. Over in one of the corners were the two Pokémon that Jenny had been looking for, and their eyes lit up with joy the moment they saw her.
The first one was a male Nidoran that had an iron collar attached to its neck. But that was not all, the tip of its horn was missing, it seemed like it had been sawed off. In its place was a small tube that was going from its hown to a bottle that was filled partially with a purple liquid a small distance away. From what Jenny could see, Rigid Paper had been “milking” the Nidoran for its poison. He had probably been the one to respond to Jenny`s calls because the other one was barely conscious
It was a Pachirisu, though that was not easy to determine at first glance. Most of its fur was missing, having been shaved off, Jenny had to assume. Both of them looked rather weak, but the Pachirisu was battered and bruised to the point where most of its skin was discolored from the blows or from whatever had happened to it.
“Hang on, I'll get you out right away!” Jenny said as she hurried over to the two of them.
“W-wait.” The Nidoran stopped her before she could get too close. “T-the chain… it hurts us if we try to remove it. She…” He looked over to the Pachirisu. “Wouldn't stop trying… Only the key works. Thats how he did it!”
“Well lets hope that I have the correct key then!” Jenny said, thankful that there had been more than one kay on the keychain that she had grabbed from Rigid Paper. The chains themselves were probably magical or something like that.
She fished out the keys from within her tails as she slowly walked over to the Nidoran who sat down and leaned to the side, to give her better access to the lock around his neck.
“Come on… please…” Jenny kept muttering to herself as she tried the keys in hope that one of them would work. The first three had already failed, but there was one left. She guided it into the lock and slowly turned it around, it had already made it further than any of the others and…
*Click*
The chain fell to the ground and the Nidoran wasted not a single second with grabbing the tube that was going into his horn and yanking it out with a grunt of pain. A thin line of poison dripped out of his horn and down along the side of his face before it stopped.
“T-thank you.” He said as he wobbled over to the Pachirisu. “You see. I told you that someone would come for us.” He said as he gently lifted up the Pachirisu`s head.
Jenny wasted no time in unlocking the others collar aswell so that they both were free.
“Can you move?” Jenny asked as she watched the Pachirisu struggle to get to its feet. “I have a place we can go to, but we need to get to the train station first.” Jenny explained.
“We… we will manage.” The Pachirisu said as it leaned against the Nidoran. Judging by the sound of the voice, Jenny would guess that it was a female. “I…” She tried to take a step forward, only for her legs to fail her, sending her falling down on the floor.
“I’m fine… but I don’t think you are well enough to move yet.” The Nidoran said as he helped the Pachirisu up once more. “I-is that guy going to come back?” The two of them asked Jenny, and she knew well who they were talking about.
“No, I took care of him. But I don't know for how long!” She went over to them and picked the injured Pachirisu up and placed her on top of her back. “I'll just have to carry you. Are you okay up there?” Jenny asked as she craned her head to look at her passenger.
“I’m okay.... I’m sorry.” The Pachirisu hung her head as she sniffed. “I hope you roughed him up good! That bastard took all of my fur.”
“I sure did, don't you worry!” Jenny smiled at how energetic she was. The injuries did not look too good, but she suspected that most of them were superficial. They would get better soon. “Come on now, let’s get out of here!” Jenny let the Nidoran make his way up the stair before carefully making her way after him. She walked over to the closest window and looked outside. She could spot a few ponies in the streets outside but not too many.
“How is it?” The Nidoran asked as he looked up to her. A small, dried up ball of poison had formed where the tip of his horn used to be.
“It looks good. We should be able to get out without anyone noticing anything suspect… just… act normally once we are outside. I want to get out of this town as quick as possible… I don't like it.” Jenny told the two of them. The Nidoran nodding in confirmation but the Pachirisu did not say anything, she was too work out and was doing her best not to doze off on Jenny`s back.
“How long did he keep the two of you in there?” Jenny asked as they waited for the right opportunity. Just as when she had entered, she did not want any pony seeing them leaving Rigid Paper`s house.
“W-we have been there for four days.” The Nidoran started. “There were more than one at the start… I… I think his friend was called Shady.” Jenny could feel her inner rage burning from just the mention of his name.
The Nidoran told her about how Shady had sold them to Rigid Paper who in turn had done some experiments to figure out how he could make money off the two Pokémon. In the end, he had settled on milking the Nidoran for poison and shaving off and selling the Pachirisu`s fur, as he could not figure out a good way to harness its electricity.
“Here is our chance!” Jenny said as she quickly opened the door, letting the Nidoran out too before closing it behind her. She tossed the keys off into a bush before they made their way down onto the street. It was much the same as when she had entered the town. She got distasteful looks and some even looked downright hateful or disgusted, but nothing more than that, they all kept their distance.
“Almost there.” They could see the train station in the distance. If Jenny had timed it correctly they would not have to wait long for the next train they needed to take them back to Neighagra falls, in fact it should be arriving mere minutes after they got there.
“T-that is him!” Jenny turned her head around as she had heard the Nidoran’s scared voice and saw Rigid Paper in the distance. He had taken his Pony form once more.
“Keep your head down and hurry.” Jenny said as she turned his head away from them and pulled him along with her towards the train station. “He is heading in the wrong direction.” It seemed like they had been just on time. Just a minute or two later and they would have ran straight into him. Though Jenny was confident that she could take him down, doing so on an open street with witnessed would just mean too much to deal with. She was surprised that Rigid had managed to wake up so quickly after her blow, but she knew next to nothing about what he actually was. Maybe his species was just naturally hardy or something like that.
The three of them wasted no time in buying the tickets they needed before they sat down to wait on the train.
“W-what's that?” The Pachirisu asked as it noticed that something white was sticking out of Jenny`s tails.
“Oh… its just something for later.” Jenny had snatched a letter from Rigid Paper`s mailbox. Normally she would never do such a thing, but the letter had the same insignia as Shady`s notebook had on a lot of its pages, so she thought that it would be worth looking into.
The three of them looked up at the sound of the train that was approaching. Jenny was just happy that she was going home. She never wanted to return to that particular town if she had any say in it.
The dark forest was silent. Only the occasional breeze that rustled the leaves or the occasional chirp from either a bird or a flying Pokémon could be heard. A small gap in the canopy allowed for a few beams of sun to find their way down to the forest floor. It was there that a Taillow was perched on a low hanging branch, enjoying the sunlight.
Things had been hectic for the little guy. He had been separated from his mate when they were brought to that new world. He understood why Arceus has done it… or at least he liked to think that he did, the speech had helped clarify a couple of things.
He had spent the first few days building himself a nice little home in the dark forest that he had woken up in. It did not seem like that many Pokémon traveled that deep into the forest, and the locals usually kept to themselves, so it was a nice spot for him. Now he just had to find his mate and things would be good again. He swore that he would not stop for anything until he-
The small Taillow fell to the ground as a slashing sound could be heard throughout the small clearing. He had not heard a sound, neither felt a thing as his spine had been severed cleanly. A brown paw poked it a few times, confirming that it was in fact dead.
“Yup… he’s gone.” The Leafeon leaned down and picked the dead Taillow up in its mouth before walking away from the scene, only a few small specks of blood remained, but that would soon be covered up too. Like nothing at all had ever happened there.
The Leafeon continued through the forest with its prey, ignoring all the other Pokémon it either heard or sensed nearby. He had not found anything that would be a threat to him in that forest anyway, so he had nothing to fear.
It did not take long for him to reach his destination. It was another small clearing, this one with a tiny stream running through it. Though there was almost no sunlight at all that, the trees were too thick for any proper sun to reach the ground.
He got started on picking off all the feathers before he heard a familiar rustling on the bushes nearby and turned towards the sound.
“Urgh… there is almost nothing to hunt in this forest!” The Growlithe complained as he came out into the clearing, a small Ralts being carried in his jaws. He went over to the Leafeon and threw his prey down onto the ground. “Almost no meat on these things… at least you got a Taillow.” He looked over and noticed how the Leafeon was looking at the Ralts.
“Y-you want to trade?” The Leafeon offered, as he swallowed the drool that had collected in its mouth. “Its been so long since I have had a Psychic-type.”
“Be my guest!” The Growlithe said as the Leafeon wasted no time in grabbing the small Ralts and pushing the Taillow over to his friend. “I thought Leafeons weren't supposed to fight!” The Growlithe commented as his friend had happily started eating, while he let out a small Ember, effectively cleaning off most of the feathers from the Taillow. “Or eat meat for that matter.”
“Just because I don't need to, doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the taste!” The Leafeon said as he almost let out a small moan. It had been too long; he had almost forgotten the taste. “And I remember having beaten you more than a few times!” He commented as he flashed the Growlithe a grin.
“You know what I meant!” The Growlithe snapped back.
“It’s up to the individual, I guess… I have met a few that are complete pacifists, but I always liked a bit more action myself… besides,” he glanced upwards. “There’s not enough sun here for me to rely on photosynthesis alone.” The two of them wasted no time in finishing their meal and burying the bones that remained. “So are you sure that you smelled her scent from this direction? I mean… they aren't humans anymore, so…” The Leafeon asked.
“I’m sure!” The Growlithe answered confidently. “It’s faint… and a little different… but it’s no doubt that it’s my Jenny!” He said with a huge grin.
“...And no scent on Ethan?” The Growlithe looked back to his friend and shook his head. It was strange that they had been fighting just before they woke up in Equestria. But when they did, they really had nothing against one another. In fact, they got along rather well.
“Sorry, Vernus. Nothing so far…”
“No… no, it’s alright. Let’s just hurry and see if that is really your Jenny!” He said as the two of them set off towards the nearby town where Growlithe had picked up the scent. The town of Hollow Shades.
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Hollow shades, eh? I wonder if they'll run into any other groups there... depends on the timeline I suppose.
Quite a violent yet rather acurate description of wild life.
But I am curious, why do the Ponies had to be so agressive? I mean, is odd.
5753255
From what I remember, its how CroixArua wrote his Hollow Shades. At least from what My editor told me. He is in the hall of fame, but still. He was the one to start out in that town.
And its not really that mad as it seemed. Jenny saw some of the worst of it and drew her own conclusions.
Never been a fan of eating pokemon, either by humans or other pokemon, since, you know, the prey can talk back...'Course there are 'animals' in the pokeverse, but I'm not sure if that's been retconned, like all the normal fruit we saw at the beginning of the series before berries took over.
Still, great chapter.
5753340
Yeah, Im not a great fan of it either... But other authors have used it and I dont like to "pretty" things up, so I just showed it like I thought it should be since its a thing.
5753361 I won't be using it. Commander Sev makes it a law not to do so and most of the army pretty much sees it as taboo. (Like cannibalism.} It's still a bit confusing as it's wrong for the bad guys to harm a Tailow, but the good guy can eat one just fine.
This is still a superb story, though and please keep it up.
5753373
I have a personal view on it.
Ethan, will not alow his Pokemon to hunt within a certain distance of the town. (so that the town will be a safezone for all)
As for the harming vs the eating... the way I see it. Let me use an example with real life. With animal cruelty. We stop or at least try to stop places that harm animals unnessesarily even if we are going to eat them later. (if that makes sence).
Its still a very wierd subject, but is is (sadly) canon so. I like your approach to it though.
5753276 I have read Croix work, and even when his town was reluctant, I doubt they would also be that much.
Specially as how Croix leave the town.
But still, that wasn't what I mean.
5753624
as i said, Jenny saw some of the worst that the town had to offer. They said that they would whip their town into shape, but I cant see every pony agreeing totally with that or that it would work so quickly. There will always be individuals that dosent agree with how things are done.
And what did you mean?
5753631 I mean the whole 'ponies been cruel' thing. And yes, I know this time it was a changeling.
What I mean is that look at the sourse material. Now I am sure evil exists, but I don't think is that much.
At least, so I think.
But ignoring that part, I see what you want to show, and it isn't bad. I just disagree with the cruel stuff.
But hey, is your story, you can do with it as you please. I am just ranting here.
I can never decide how I feel about pokemon eating pokemon.
5754644 It's just like animals eating other animals in real life... except that they have a bit higher of an IQ... I mean, all that protein's gotta come from somewhere.
Aww, someone looking for- ...That's slightly depressing.
I like Nidoran. I almost wrote a fanfic about one, but I couldn’t think of much of a direction for it.
When you mentioned Hollow Shades, I thought this would be a crossover with A Whole New Frontier.
Why would a Changeling have a fridge?
9480353
Nidorans are amazing^^
sadly, no crossover there. Was around the time he too quit i think.
as for the fridge, I cant remember my reasoning at the time, but, to keep up appearances? Maybe it likes food, and its usefull for keeping other things fresh.
Honestly this doesn't fit the initial personality of Vernus at all if he has been working around a large number of weak and frail Pokémon for as long as you make him out to have been he wouldn't just switch to being OK with hunting other Pokémon and it's only been what two or three days I doubt that he would change his mind in that time "out of necessity" and plus the ralts would have sensed the growlothe as soon as he was near raltses sense emotions they would know when something that wants to eat them is near and book it or if they were skilled enough they would fight back
5765980
Pokémon are as smart as people in this so their IQ is a lot higher