By the Firelight
“And the motto isn’t simply something you just rehearse and memorize,” James explained to Celestia, later that night. “It’s something that comes from deep inside of your heart. It’s an expression of our souls, the ties that bind Team Rocket! When the moment comes, the words simply come to you and you find yourself knowing just what to say and do. It can’t just be taught, you have to listen to the artistic urge deep inside and you’ll know how to act in sync with all of us. Like Wobbuffet there.” James gestured at the blue Pokémon. “He knows just when to burst out of his ball and strike a pose.”
“That’s the way it is,” Wobbuffet nodded.
“Also, we practice Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3,” Meowth added.
“Meowth! Not helping!” James put his hands on his hips. “I’m trying to make a deep point about the nature of our relationship and you go ruining it!”
“It’s alright,” Celestia said with only a slight giggle. “I understand. Where I come from ponies have been known to become overwhelmed with artistic urges and break into spontaneous musical numbers.”
Team Rocket and their Pokémon were all huddled around a small campfire, watching a pot of soup slowly heat up. After taking their balloon several miles out from Lumiose they’d set up camp in a forest clearing far from the main trails, concealed their balloon as best they could, and then set about making some well-earned dinner. Despite the unseasonably chilly night, all were in good spirits after their success against Team Flare.
“Well anyway,” James continued as he sat back down. “You were great back there, Celestia, and we couldn’t have done it without you. I’m sure it won’t take you long to get the hang of our motto.”
“You think so?” the alicorn asked.
“I know so,” he said after Meowth’s translation. “Just keep an eye on that part of you that causes… what did you say? Spontaneous musical numbers?”
“It sounds kind of silly when you actually think about it, but everypony has learned to more or less go just along with it.”
“You know,” James tapped his chin. “Come to think of it, you haven’t really told us much about what it’s like where you’re from.”
“Equestria? Well, it’s a very beautiful and peaceful country, populated by unicorns, our weavers of spells, pegasi, masters of the weather and flight, and earth ponies, our craftsponies and folk of the land. That’s a broad overview at best but I’d need weeks to go over the exact intricacies of cultural norms and regional variations of a pony’s expected role. The country is green and the weather is well-managed to keep it that way, to support our abundance of animal life.”
“Are there any humans there?” Jessie asked from across the fire. “You seemed to have some idea of what we were the day you arrived, even if you didn’t know about Pokémon.”
“No,” Celestia shook her head. “None of your kind that I know of populate Equus – that’s the planet’s name – and I’m reasonably certain I haven’t missed any major population groups. But previous jaunts across dimensions have seen encounters between ponies and various groups of humans, so you weren’t terribly novel to me. Once this whole horrible affair with Team Flare and Dark Balls is over, and I discover a way back home, I’d be happy to have you all as our first guests of your kind.”
“Ya said you were a princess back home,” Meowth said. “Dat must mean you’re loaded, right?”
“Well, I don’t really think about it that often, but I suppose you would consider me to be quite rich, yes.” Seeing stars forming quickly in their eyes, she hastened to add. “But in all honesty, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Flaunting wealth, jewelry, expensive clothing… it gets very boring after a few years and then you just don’t know what to do with it all.”
“Ya could always give it ta us,” Meowth cut in.
“And when everything comes easily material goods lose their luster and you find yourself funding random public works and charities out of your own pocket just to clear some space around your palace.”
“Sounds like the kind of problem I could learn to live with,” Jessie said.
“Tell ya what, you try getting zapped by a Pikachu for a couple a’ years and we’ll try rolling around in your dough and we’ll see who has it da hardest.”
“If money is something you want I’d be happy to give you some whenever I can,” the princess said. “You’ve been very hospitable, and if I’m honest this whole thing has been more exhilarating and, well, fun than I’ve been able to have in a long time. Daily business of running a country and mingling with the upper crust gets rather dull after a while.”
“We’d be happy to pay your homeland a visit,” James said, reaching a gloved hand to scratch behind the alicorn’s ears. “When we have time.”
“Long as ya feed us.” Meowth added.
“Mmmm…” Celestia could practically feel her body melting to goo. Why she never thought to have this done back home? “How much Giovanni… ooooh that’s the spot… pay you?”
“Not enough,” the trio sighed.
“But after we take down Team Flare da boss’ll give us all a big promotion and a raise for sure!” Meowth raised his fist.
“Yeah!” all three cheered.
Not so much further north, Ash, Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie were huddled around a campfire of their own. The mood here was much less celebratory – they were chasing a thin lead, and all of them knew it. Twilight Sparkle herself was staring into the flames, an uneasy expression on her face.
“Hey,” Pikachu sidled up to the purple princess. “Are you okay?”
“I’m stuck in a foreign dimension, I have no idea what’s happening to my home or friends, and my teacher has been ponynapped and brainwashed by super-criminals,” Twilight answered without looking at him. “I’m wandering through the forest at night to go see a man who won’t answer a call who once knew where they were in the vague hopes that he somehow still does. So, all in all, just peachy.”
“Mmm…” Pikachu’s face fell, and he put a stubby hand on her wing. “Hey, we’ll find her. Don’t worry. Even if we have to chase Team Rocket all the way back to Kanto and fight Giovanni himself for her, we’ll find her.”
“I wish I was as confident as you are,” Twilight sniffed a little, brushing a tear from one eye. “I don’t even know if I’ll ever see my home, my family, or my friends ever again. Alicorns live a really long time. I could wind up wandering this world forever. I just… I just don’t really know how to handle that.”
“Hey.”
Another hand reached down. The alicorn didn’t need to look to recognize the sound of Ash’s voice.
“I know it’s gotta seem rough right now,” he said as her began to scratch the back of her neck in a rhythmic, surprisingly soothing manner. “But there’s always a way to make things better again, especially when you’ve got good friends to back you up.”
“Don’t I know it,” said Twilight with a faint smile.
“And if you need anything, we’re here for you.”
“I… thanks.”
“Do you all know what I hate?” Princess Luna said as she paced the forest floor in a circle around the two red-suited humans, in turn surrounded by dozens of Spearow and Fearow. “I hate evil forces possessing somepony’s mind! Do you know what I hate almost as much? Giving an hour-long speech on the nature and importance of free will that my prisoners cannot understand and NO ONE REMINDING ME!”
A momentary silence greeted the alicorn princess as her hard, blue eyes swept out over her followers. Birds flinched and looked away, instinctively unwilling to meet her gaze for too long lest it be taken for a challenge.
“It was a very good speech,” came an anonymous voice from the crowd. “We didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Also, you’re scary,” said another.
“Urgh…” Luna rubbed her temple with one hoof. “Just tell me one of you has what I sent you for.”
“Got it right here, boss lady,” said one of the Spearow, flapping down from a tree on tiny wings. It dropped several shards of the strange black orbs these humans had called “Dark Balls”.
“Good job, ummm… Spearow,” Luna said. As far as she could discern they recognized one another by smell and slight visual cues and didn’t really seem to have individual names. It didn’t make much sense to her but truthfully little about this place did.
With a little bit of difficulty, she nudged the shard of shattered technology over towards the humans. When the two could clearly seem them for what they were, Luna looked both straight in the eye and raised one brow. If the spoken word wasn’t working and her usual dream magic was on the fritz, body language would have to do.
“You… want to know about the Dark Balls?” the woman guessed.
Luna nodded.
“And why should we help you?” the man demanded. “Team Flare isn’t-”
The alicorn cut him off with a beam of purple and black energy that swept narrowly above the humans’ head, slicing the thick branch off a tree and carving a deep furrow into another tree behind that. Then she looked back at the two and raised an eyebrow again.
“Tch… what does it matter anyway?” the man said. “It’s not like they can tell anyone.”
“And in a few short days they’ll all be gone,” his partner agreed.
Luna’s eyes narrowed.
“Fine, Dark Balls utilize captured technology to increase a captured Pokémon’s capabilities to the highest level while inducing total loyalty.”
“I already knew that, you idiots.” Luna bared her teeth. “Tell me what you were doing here and why!”
“We need them because the boss’ plan calls for a lot of energy to be taken from a lot of Pokémon at once and we need them compliant,” the woman said, flinching away from the snarling alicorn.
“And the boss has a special use for them too but never told us what,” the man added.
They were going to enslave thinking creatures with these things only to drain them dry? Why? What possible scheme would demand cruelty like that? And what “special use” did their superior intend to put them towards?
“We aren’t the only ones. There are hundreds more out there, gathering wild Pokémon for the world’s reshaping.”
Luna’s eyes widened as she processed the implications of that. If these two alone had taken five of her subordinates and still had room for more, and there were hundreds more teams just like them, then that would mean…
“It’s Sombra all over again,” she breathed.
“You see?” the man leaned forward. “You haven’t stopped Team Flare at all. It won’t be long before more of our brothers and sisters arrive to free us, and they’ll be bringing way tougher Pokémon than these measly birds of yours. So I’d suggest you take your flock here and fly away if you know what’s good for you.”
“I’d say a master willing to do this to innocents is far more likely to write you off for dead,” Luna countered, though her thoughts were already elsewhere. “Tell me, Spearow,” she pointed to one bird at random, “these two were found walking the woods with clean clothing and no ready means of expedient transportation, motorized or otherwise. What does that tell you?”
“Uh… they like walking?”
Luna sighed. “What does it tell you about where they walked from?”
“That it’s probably close by?” the Pokémon guessed.
“Very good,” the princess nodded. “So, you all can be made to learn. Yes, we may safely conclude from their condition when I found them that they had not been roughing it in the wilderness recently. From the descriptions I have of mainline human civilization, it would appear that a group practicing mass abduction and slavery would be considered abhorred outlaws. Ergo they must have some sort of base or underground waystation nearby, from which they walked and to which they intended to transport their brainwashed prisoners. If they cannot simply do it in the open, there must be some kind of clandestine hub for operations. And it must be within walking distance of here.”
Luna began pacing as she continued. “If in danger, most social species will seek reinforcements from their own kind. If, for example, these two humans were to be chased by a vicious and vengeful flock of wild birds, where would they be most likely to run for help?”
“Their base?” one Spearow hazarded a guess.
“Exactly,” she nodded. “If denied time to think and made to believe danger is imminent they should default towards the one place they know to be friendly. Thus, we can use this reaction to track them back to their nest and uncover the true scale of this fiendish operation.”
“So if we chase them hard enough they’ll run to their friends and we can figure out where they are and how many?”
“Yes!” Luna nodded with sincere pleasure. “And with that information we can begin forming our own counter-stratagem. We can avenge our injured comrades and put a stop to whatever is brewing!”
That got the flock excited. Spearow are widely known to have a disproportionate vengeful streak ten miles wide, actual harm done to members of their flock was all but unforgivable. The alicorn princess nodded approvingly. Even if they were a bit trigger-happy, they at least had good reason to be here.
“Well what are you waiting for?” she pointed a hoof at the humans, who flinched. “Get them!”
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Well, I guess Luna hasn't found an answer to the communication problem. Do ponies and humans use the same written language? Will any of the ponies learn to speak the human language? Meowth is proof that while difficult, it's totally doable.
"Get them!"
The war song of Luna's pokemon cavalry brigade in it's entirety. Always enthusiastically sung however!
A refreshing success for the quatuor, already rare, and even more when it's for a good cause.
Luna and her flock are on the right path.
Twilight and co, though, are still moving in circles. I wonder if they will progress soon (finding Celestia, realizing there is more than meets the eye, ...).
so you weren’t terrible novel to me
They were going to enslave thinking creatures with these things only to drain them dry? Why? What possible scheme would demand cruelty like that? And what “special use” did their superior intend to put them towards?”
1. Terribly.
2. Extra quotation mark.
And thus Team Flare grunts 1 and 2 get to know the pecking order of things around here.
I almost wholly expect Luna to just literally be leading all the wild pokemon as a general to fight them. That'd be epic. Maybe even for dramatic flare she could have enough flying pokemon to blot out the sun before descending like a swarm of locusts.
Hah, excellent. It looks like a reunion might not be terribly far off. Hope to see more soon.
You heard her birds, get them!
This is going to lead to army of pokemon lead by Luna assaulting team Flare base isn't it? Well at least finding her will suddenly become really easy.
I had wondered: does Luna have any sort of dreamwalking or telepathy in this world? She could do a better job with interrogation if she separated them, made them fall asleep, entered their dreams to have a chat, and ensured their answers matched each other's.
9000740
You might have watched Avatar a bit too much.
Not sure how wise it is to invite Team Rocket in Equestria. Twilight sure ain't gonna be happy.
Luna is doing great, even after being late into the party, she might be the one to actually put a stop to Team Flare first.
terribly
forces
technology
I like this chapter. Luna especially. "No one told me I've been yelling for an hour and no one understood me!"
Of course, she also has a certain devious flare for strategy, too, what with her little method to find their base. Muahahahaha.
9000900
Or shows made me too theatrical. Could be both though.
9000703
Twi said Oak's books were similar to Neighponeese(?), so a good translation spell pre-dimension hopping should do the trick, assuming they make it home.
A wonderful chapter as always!
9000915
Yes, but Celestia, rightfully, doesn't care and doesn't have to care what she thinks.
When did Team Rocket start believing Celestia's story?
9001106
I'm pretty sure Celestia very much cares what Twilight thinks.
9001134
After Laverre and her being proven correct on the Lysandre-Dark Ball thing.
9000915
Jesse and James in Equestria would be relatively harmless. I mean, they'd waste money and maybe pull Flim+Flam style schemes... they'd probably recruit some ponies to come back with them as pokemon to give to the boss, I guess?
I love this!
I'm surprised James isn't on Celestia's side here. Wasn't that part of the reason he gave up being aristocracy?
(Mind, that was because he valued his freedom more than his comfort, so maybe it isn't a great comparison...)
9001337
No? It was the whip-wielding harridan (that wanted to get rid of poor Growlie) that his parents inexplicably decided to marry him off to that chased him out the door. James frequently participates in their get rich quick schemes (remember the Magikarp salesman?) and very often joins his teammates in fantasizing about wealth and celebrity when they deliver Pikachu to Giovanni. Money is fine by him, he just doesn't want to be hitched to a domineering twit.
9001459
That's where I was going with the "Valued his freedom more than his comfort" remark.
Growlee is Best Pokemon.
9001475
James has fallen for the Magikarp Salesman's scam (multiple times, because Team Rocket) under the explicit premise of making lots of money fast. He wants to be rich, he doesn't want Jessibelle. So Celestia's point about wealth getting boring really doesn't apply to him at all.
9001137
Strike the "rightfully," then.
You know, I wonder if Luna still has the ability to walk into dreams in this world? It'll be helpful to gather secrets and plans esp. Lysandre's though it'll probably be traumatic. Speaking of which, she could run into Darkrai during such events and ask for his help. Maybe Cresselia too. Two lunar Pokemon are better than one.
Luna, you're a little too good at this.
Lovely parallelism in this chapter. Nice to see the Princess of Friendship peeking her head through the understandable neuroses. Celestia and James make such a fantastic hammy duo. That was a joy to read and doubtless even more of a joy to participate in.
I'm not sure what scares me more - Luna's competence, or the fact that she might actually teach the Spearows competence.
I really need more.
OH BOY, IT'S THE FIRST EPISODE ALL OVER AGAIN! START THE MUSIC!
9001577
Your avatar with that line. I died laughing.
Okay. Having binge read this story from beginning to where it is right now I can officially say that this is one of the best Pokemon stories on this site. I am so excited to see where this leads and will follow this to the end.
Glory to the New Luna Republic's Avian Squadron! Also known as the "Hoard Of Birds That I For Some Reason Read The Dialogue Of In A Boston Accent!" The HOBTIFSRRTDOIABA if you will! Glory be!
Oh. And Celestia's in this story too, I guess. woo
9000900
What do you mean watched Avatar too much?
I love the way Luna talks. You really capture how she speaks very formally and classically without any Shakespeare.
Well, Celestia's Stockholm syndrom is getting stronger it seems.
9003429
Don't tell twilight that
Uuh...
I'm just going to assume that Celestia learned some type of psychic translation.
Unless I missed that in an earlier chapter...
9026667
Meowth translates for her, it even says so right before she starts speaking initially. The author just cut out the middleman for most of it because do you really want to see, "Meowth translated this to the team" every other line?
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=zero+mostel+if+i+were+a+rich+man&docid=607992227114975376&mid=E91D37CFA537537369F1E91D37CFA537537369F1&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
9002311
How the heck do you even say that acromym?
9119729
With flair and pizzazz.
And I imagine Luna at the end adopting a face similar to Saitamas when he said he’d go left.
9119729
Hob-tif-sert-doy-aba is how I pronounced it.
NGL it sounds like a surprisingly intimidating word in another language. Kinda like Baba Yaga.
Remembering the time these guys almost died for real in the Tree Of Life movie? Seriously not enough.