Pokémon Eclipse

by moviemaster8510

P2 – What About the Others?

Applejack’s eyes fluttered open, the foreign smell of sea and grass instantly filling her nose. Upon waking up and shooting up to sit upright, she was met with the terrifyingly alien Akala Outskirts. Even the crash of the ocean waves against the cliff just a few feet from her startled her, and she looked around to find Rarity stirring awake herself.

Applejack slid to her side, violently shoving her. “Rarity! Rarity!!”

The white unicorn groaned as she sat up, several hairs on her mane standing on end as she also had trouble knowing exactly where she and her friend had ended up. “Applejack? Where are we?"

“Dunno, but I can’t find anyone.”

Rarity got to her hooves, looking around in either direction along the pathway, finding no sign of her friends anywhere.

Applejack stood up and cupped her hooves over her mouth as best as she could. “Twilight! Rainbow!”

Only silence followed. Rarity trotted in place as she continued looking back and forth, the delusion that her eyes were deceiving her fading away with each second passed and each turn back. Just then, a soft magenta light came into Applejack’s vision from inside a distant canyon pass.

“Twilight?” Applejack didn’t even wait for a response, galloping as fast as she could toward it. “Twilight?!”

“Apple–” Rarity’s protest fell on deaf ears, and she took to a gallop as well, hoping to gain the ground she lost.

The two ran past a pair of stone idols, and in the back of the rock wall of the mountain was an entrance with an ornate wooden frame, the odd sight of which brought Applejack and Rarity to a halt.

“You think she’d really run in there?” Rarity asked.

The light shone again, prompting Applejack to lead the way. “Only one way to find out.”

The two walked slowly inside, Rarity illuminating the dark passageway to the next area further ahead. While light was just up ahead, the chase both Rarity and Applejack were being led on both left them quivering, especially as the light on Rarity’s horn flickered.

“Twilight?” Rarity called. “Come on, this isn’t funny anymore! I thought you had better taste than this!”

As the two came into an open area with two stone pathways surrounded by green grass and flowers, Rarity turned off her horn’s light, allowing a being with a conical head to peak back over the back edge and observe them. Rarity and Applejack continued walking forward to the entrance to another cavern, this one having a more formal rectangular shape and arched top with a purple outline.

Applejack slowly continued forward, prompting Rarity to pull her back. “Are you crazy?”

“What? She could be in there?”

“Do you really think Twilight would wordlessly lead us in here after we’ve just landed Celestia knows where?”

As the two ponies continued bickering, the figure watching them floated down shining its soft light.

“…Celestia herself probably doesn’t know where or what this place is!” Rarity added.

“Well, our only lead was that light we both saw, and if that ain’t Twilight, gosh darn it, I don’t know what it could…”

Applejack’s voice trailed off as both she and Rarity could see the glow getting brighter and closer to them, and slowly turning to see what it was, their faces contorted in pure terror as a humanoid being with a pure black body with a featureless face save for its shimmering red and turquoise eyes and markings above and below it appeared to them. It’s body from the waist down was covered in a pink egg-shaped shell with two appendages like wings sprouting from it. On its head, a similarly-shaped cone sat atop its pink-curly hair, two long bangs draping down the sides of the forehead that curled in at the ends.

The two ponies stood petrified at the strange creature, and as it came within a foot of them, Rarity stood on her hind legs as she caught Applejack, who leapt into her protective embrace as they both screamed for their lives. At once, the creature backed away with its hands over its face where its mouth would be. As it looked between the two ponies, beads of sweat and tears sprayed from both its brow and its eyes. The ponies looked to it again, unsure if it was any closer than before, only to see it waving its hands as a show of frantic innocence, leaving them gradually calm and nonplussed, slowing easing themselves down as their cries subsided.

They then watched as the being put its hands up and together before spreading them out, then pointing at the two and putting its hands back up, slowly lowering them and miming out an explosion with them. It then mimed them running to the best of her ability, finishing her charade by motioning to them with her hands and then pointing them down to the ground. The ponies could only watch in silence.

“I can’t be sure,” Rarity said, “but I think it’s saying that the portal sent us here and that this thing brought us here.”

The creature nodded vigorously and excitedly, spooking the ponies a bit, but the creature appeared less offended by it. However, something seemed off to Applejack.

“Can you… understand us?”

It nodded again. The ponies then looked to each other. Clearly this thing didn’t want to hurt them.

“Then why did you bring us here?”

The creature floated into the next cavern, and the ponies, after looking at it for a spell more, walked inside. They then found themselves on a wooden floor before stone shrine, an idol atop of it decorated from behind by a large fan of palm leaves and a bulbous red vined plant on either side.

Before they could marvel over the place they now found themselves in, the being floated down with two thick wool blankets, setting them down at the ponies’ front hooves. As if to further clarify, the being put its hands together and placed them underneath its cocked head.

“Um… thank you?” Applejack spoke.

The creature floated up again, its eyes closed and its clamped hands put at the lower side of its face in a show of happiness and mild victory. Without another sound, it waved them goodbye as it went out the exit.

“Do you think she knows where our other friends are?” asked Rarity.

“Maybe,” Applejack said, setting and folding her blanket. “Maybe she’s going to look for them and keep us safe in here in the meantime. Speakin’ of ‘in the meantime,’ we should get some sleep ourselves.”

Applejack curled up on the blanket and shut her eyes, hoping that her exhaustion could drown out any bad ideas of what happened to her friends. Rarity sighed and charged her horn, dismayed to see that she seemed to have trouble lifting up the blanket provided to her. With another groan she haphazardly flattened her blanket and lied down on it, looking up at the starry night above. It was indeed a beautiful sight, and after long, she closed her eyes to sleep.

Rarity’s eyes slowly opened as the harsh sunlight from above became too difficult to sleep through. As her vision settled, she found the being from the previous night standing to the side of the room’s entrance, where a young woman stood, leaning against the inner entryway. She had cocoa-colored skin, shorter black hair, and wore a light-pink low-cut halter-top with darker-pink short shorts. Her arms and legs were adorned with nearly a dozen different bracelets, anklets, and bands, including a Z-Ring on her left wrist.

Rarity shuffled toward Applejack, the other woman’s appearance frightening her. “Applejack, Applejack!”

Applejack came awake but couldn’t withhold her shock at the other woman. “Whoa, whoa! What are you?!”

The woman chuckled as she approached them, her hands raised in goodwill. “Relax, you two, I’m a friend of Tapu Lele’s here.”

“Tapu… Lele?” Rarity asked. “Just… who are you?”

“And how can you speak Ponish?” added Applejack.

“Otherworldly indeed…” the woman said to herself. “My name is Olivia, and I am the Kahuna and protector of Akala Island here in the region of Alola. After last night’s… incident, Tapu Lele brought me here to see to your safety.”

“Our… our friends. They got sent here too. Do you know where they are?”

“Unfortunately, I do not. However, I’ve heard from a friend that more portals appeared over the other three islands. There are other island guardians like Tapu Lele and Kahunas like myself, and I’m pretty certain that they are also seeing to their safety as well.”

“If that’s true,” Rarity responded, “can you take us to them?”

“While I could do that, I’m certain whoever is responsible for your appearance here will take it upon themselves to see that you are reunited with your friends.”

“How would you know that?” Applejack asked.

“Some dear friends of mine work for them, and knowing the work that they do, I can assure you that this was nothing more than a terrible accident.”

“How do we know we can trust them? How do we know that we can trust you?”

Olivia sighed, her choices of words this morning doing her no favors. “I can’t say that you should, but if you give me a chance, I want to make your time here as comforting as possible. Come.”

Olivia turned and took a few steps out of the shrine confusing both ponies and even Tapu Lele. “Hold on!” Rarity put her hoof out. “Where are you going?”

“Back home. There’s a bath and plenty of food in my fridge if you’re hungry and need to clean yourselves.”

“A bath!? Oh yes, please, take me now!”

Applejack looked stunned as she watched Rarity join Olivia’s side. “Rarity, wait! What are you–” She was interrupted by the violent growling of her stomach and the pains that accompanied them. “Eh… yeah, I guess I’m a bit hungry.”

Olivia huffed in humor. “Then follow me. It’s a bit of a hike to Konikoni City, and probably early enough so not too many people can see you.”

“People?” Applejack approached her on the other side and walked. “Is that what your kind are called?”

“Kind of. I am what we call a human, but collectively, yes, we’re people. And what are your kind called?”

“Ponies,” Rarity answered, pointing to herself and Applejack. “I’m a pony, she’s a pony, our friends are ponies. We’re just… ponies.”

“I see. Quite the number of similarities we have,” she muttered to herself.

Turning back, Rarity and Applejack saw as Tapu Lele waved them both goodbye, and the two responded with as kind and wide of a smile as they could, given their general situation.

“Twilig… Twilight?”

Spike’s voice and pushing on her belly woke the purple alicorn up, and as she sat herself up, she found herself in another shrine of a similar construct, though its stone walls appeared to be made from sandstone. From the sunlight that shone above, it looked to already be morning.

Twilight turned back to Spike, a look of horror on her face. “Spike, where… where are we?”

“I don’t know, but that thing has been hovering over us all day.”

Twilight turned up toward the back of the room where Spike had pointed. Sure enough, a being floated above the wooden platform up to the altar. Its large pig-like head appeared to be its entire body, its most defining facial feature other than its red and turquoise eyes and facial markings was its yellow nose with a white ring hanging from the nostrils. It had muscular arms with red rings on the shoulders and gold, cloven hooves for hands, and it had a tail that ended with what appeared to be a large golden bell. Atop its head appeared to two long red shells with white and gold markings with two black horns sprouting from the top.

The appearance of such a creature forced Twilight to hop back and crawl away in fear. The creature looked down upon her reaction, and while it produced no sounds, it put its arms to its hips and shook up and down as it bowed over, appearing as though it was laughing.

“What… what are you?” Twilight demanded. “Where are my friends?”

The being scratched its head, appearing unsure of what she was talking about. However, it turned around, and in its grasp, it produced a large wooden bowl full of berries, floating down to the two with it. Twilight and Spike scooted back several inches, leading the being to pick a random berry, a pear-shaped fruit with small orange specks, and put it towards its mouth. Despite the lack of a mouth, the berry went through its face where its mouth would be, and loudly chomped, finishing the gesture by rubbing its stomach.

“How do we know you didn’t pick the one berry that wasn’t poisoned?” asked Twilight.

The creature responded with a slouch and a defeated hanging of its arms and floated back up to the shrine, shrugging as if it were saying “why do I bother?” Spike, feeling a small grumble in his stomach, reached forward and grabbed a small red-and-yellow cherry like berry with two leaves sprouting from it, only to have its hand frozen in place by Twilight’s magic.

“Spike!” she hissed. “Don’t eat that! That’s not even the same berry it picked!”

“If you don’t want to eat it, fine!” Spike managed to fight his hand from Twilight’s magic grasp. “But it beats starving to me!”

Before he could eat it, Twilight’s aura appeared around the berry and flicked it into the back left corner. The creature, having turned back to see them, moved its eyes to give the appearance of rolling them and turned back away.

“Twilight!” yelled Spike. “What, do you want to go hungry?”

“Until that thing can show me where my friends are, I’m not trusting it!”

Twilight further made her point by taking the bowl and throwing it up, sending all of the berries to the floor, several of them smashing upon landing. The creature, seeing this, soared down to the overturned bowl, picked it up in the space of its hoof, and slammed it on its side, smashing it into dozens of pieces. The sudden violent act caused Twilight to hug Spike closely as she charged her horn, teleporting themselves to the top of the shrine.

They then watched as the being turned around to find them gone. It quickly flew through the shrine’s exit into the pathway to the exit of the ruins, still finding no one there. Twilight could tell that it was getting close to knowing their hiding spot.

“Spike. Hold on tight.”

Spike did as he was told, hugging her body tight. “Okay? Now wha–”

As the creature began flying up, Twilight flipped back so that she and Spike were now diving back into the shrine, Twilight arcing back so that she could fly through the shrine exit and continued until she reached the exit for the ruins, only for her face to be hit by blistering winds of hot sand as they entered a large desert. The sudden sensation of blindness and heat grounded Twilight, knocking Spike off as well. Turning back, she brought him close and formed a dome from her aura around their bodies, deflecting the sandy winds around them.

“Don’t worry Spike,” she told the dragon, “I’ve also made our shield into an invisibility cloak. Now that thing won’t be able to see us through it.”

“Wow. Good thinking, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded in thanks for the compliment. “Come on. Let’s go look for our friends.”

From above, the creature tried looking for them through the sandstorm, but could find no sign of them anywhere. Throwing its arms down in frustration, it resolved to fly south to the other end of the desert.

The sun was already setting, and all Twilight and Spike could see was just more sand blowing so hard that they could not see more than ten feet in front of them. Having traveled for most of the day without any food or water, Twilight and Spike were close to breaking out of sheer exhaustion.

“Twilight,” Spike wheezed, “please tell us we’re close to the end.”

“Don’t worry, Spike. Have I ever let you down?”

“No, but if we just flew out of this storm, we could find our way faster.”

“And have that thing find us and do who knows what to us?”

“What if it gave up? We’ll be wandering this desert forever for nothing.”

“If you want to find that out for us, be my guest!”

Spike, already physically weakened, fell back on his rump as tears welled in his eyes. Twilight, realizing the unfairness of her remark, set herself down before him and stroked his face.

“I’m so sorry, Spike. I’m hungry, thirsty, and scared.”

“And I'm not?”

She glanced away, a stinging comeback that she knew she all but deserved. “Of course you are. I just don’t know what would happen if something happened to you because of something I did, especially now.”

Spike still didn’t look convinced, and Twilight knew what she needed to promise.

“Listen. We’ll go on for ten more minutes, and then we’ll try flying. How’s that sound?”

This looked to satisfy Spike, as he weakly smiled and nodded at a fair deal made.

“Alright,” she said, “lets keep going…”

Spike’s soft and mildly hopeful expression suddenly turned to fear as a shadow approached them through the wall of sand.

“…we shouldn’t be in here for much longer.”

Spike continued pointing behind her, as the creature, a blue bipedal shark-like dragon, came closer to them, cocking its head at the sounds coming directly in front of it and the sand that seemed to bounce off of thin air to it.

“Spike? What is…”

Before she could realize the danger she was suddenly in, the dragon slashed down on the shield, the strength of the hit making Twilight’s body and magic give out, as she was brought to her stomach, too weak to get up.

“Twilight!” Spike ran to her aid as he tried shaking her to no avail.

As the dragon approached, Spike blew a threatening plume of green fire at it, which only served to anger it. The dragon roared loudly, the volume of its screech and the overwhelming fear Spike faced making his body woozy. Before he hit the ground, he barely made out as a large red bipedal crocodile tackled into the dragon and sent it running off, clearly outmatched. As Spike’s eyes shut, a human approached them and joined the crocodile by its side, the two of them looking upon him and Twilight.

Twilight awoke with a start and shock-ridden shout, now finding herself in a bed with a blanket sliding off her body. Upon seeing the old man sitting beside her, she jumped up and slid as far back into the headrest as possible.

The man looked rather threatening himself, sporting grey medium-length hair that was ridden with days of bedhead, thick stubble, and wore a dirty black leather jacket, a dark red shirt that matched his eyes, dark-grey striped trousers and a pair of black flip-flops. He appeared unfazed by her frightened expressions, holding a bowl of a dark blue liquid in hand calmly and still. Twilight touched her lips, seeing the similarly-colored syrup on her hoof.

“What did you just feed me?” she asked.

“Chesto juice,” he simply said. “You and your little dragon buddy looked pretty tired after traveling that desert all damned day. I have to say, that takes guts. Not a lot of brains, mind you, but certainly guts.”

“Hey!” Twilight shot to her hooves, approaching him so that her face was inches from his. “I don’t know who, or even what you are, but we don’t need your help!”

“Judging from how that Gabite nearly killed both of you dead, you could have fooled me.”

“Wait… Where is Spike?”

“So Spike’s his name? Last I saw, he was helping himself to some soup.”

“Helping himself to…”

Twilight shot off the bed and ran down the stairs that led directly into a kitchen dining room, where Spike was already slurping down a bowl of broth and bits of noodle that looked nearly as big as him. Twilight’s ears drooped in horror as she tried taking the bowl from him, only to see it empty.

“If you’re worried that I poisoned his soup,” the man said, “you shouldn’t worry. I don’t think Tapu Bulu would appreciate me killing his guests. Besides, if I wanted you dead, I would have left you in the hands of that Gabite. Would have been easier too…”

Twilight began breathing heavily, ignoring his crude joke.

“Twilight,” Spike said, “you should have some soup. It’s really good.”

Twilight was caught in a whirlwind as everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours fell on top of her at once, and she hung her head and wings down and began loudly sobbing. The man approached her and knelt down, lightly placing his hand on her shoulder.

“Look,” he said, “I wish I could say I knew where your friends are, but if it’s any consolation, you and your friend here are safe now. Now please, have some ramen before the noodles get too soft.”

Twilight looked to be in no mood to do much of anything. He then sighed as he went to the stove where the half-empty pot simmered, grabbed another large bowl from the cupboard to the left, and poured two large ladlefuls of broth and noodles into it, setting it on the floor for her.

“Eat up.” He stepped back to allow Twilight some space. “Tapu Bulu told me you decided not to have breakfast… or lunch for that matter. At least eat some dinner.”

Twilight weakly lifted the bowl to the table next to Spike, and sat down at the chair.

“Here, have mine.” Spike handed Twilight his chopsticks, which she took in her magical grasp.

Nanu couldn’t help but smirk as he watched the alicorn pull some noodles out from the broth and gently slurp them up, getting more and more ravenous with each passing moment. Within a minute, she had eaten all the noodles and guzzled every drop of broth from the bowl, panting as she finished her meal. She turned to him, who quickly resumed his downtrodden façade.

The words seemed stuck in Twilight’s throat, but it were the only next words that she could possibly say. “Th… thank you… uh…”

“Nanu,” he answered. “You can call me Nanu. If you’re still hungry, you can finish what’s left in the pot.”

Twilight nodded, smiling. “Thank you, Nanu. This was good.”

“Don’t thank me. It was prepackaged.”

He returned upstairs as Twilight felt safe to go to the stove and pour more soup for her and Spike.

Twilight and Spike were fast asleep on Nanu’s bed. He peered through the crack in the doorway and closed it, satisfied with their relaxation. He went back downstairs, left his kitchen dining room and walked into a small study and towards a desk with a simple telephone resting in the corner.

He looked at it as if he were about to touch a thorny bramble, but he mustered the strength to grab the phone and dial a series of numbers on the keypad. Putting it to his ear, he waited for several moments before whoever he was calling picked up the other line. He winced as he heard the person’s voice.

“Hey,” he said to them. “You have no reason to say yes to this, but I really need a favor from you.”

By morning, a young woman approached the porch of Nanu’s home. With her buzzed-short purple hair, she looked more a boy than a girl, especially with her deep purple leather jacket, mauve low-cut tank top and torn dark-blue jeans. Her most feminine feature other than her girlish face was the eyeliner on the edge of her bottom lid and heavy mascara on her lashes. Stepping up to the door, she delivered five unnecessarily loud knocks. After ten seconds, Nanu opened the door for her, the sight of him making her grimace.

“Where are they?” she asked, trying to mask a sense of contempt. “I’d like to be out of here sooner than later.”

“Good to see you too,” Nanu said with indifference. “They’re up in my bedroom now.”

“Hmm. They’ll probably need a bath once they get to the Aether House then.”

Nanu sneered as he walked up behind her on the stairs. Once she opened the door, she saw Twilight and Spike turn to look at her, immediately bewildered by her androgynous appearance. She herself was caught completely off guard by the two of them.

“Twilight, Spike,” Nanu said, motioning to her with his hand, “this is Acerola. An… old friend of mine.”

Acerola was too wrapped up in the pony and dragon to come up with a remark, getting down to one knee and looking into their faces.

“Hey,” she said with surprising sweetness. “H– How are you?”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Acerola.” Twilight’s clear voice was another shock to the girl, making her fall back on her butt as Twilight approached her to shake her hand. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend Spike.”

“Hey, there!” Spike said a bit sheepishly.

Acerola reached forward to shake Spike’s hand too, his eager and natural acceptance of such a gesture almost too much for her to take in.

“Nanu,” she gasped. “Where did you find them?”

“Wandering the Haina Desert. Nearly half-dead from starvation and thirst.”

“So, then… Acerola,” Twilight spoke. “May I ask why Nanu brought you here?”

“Well,” she said, standing up, “Nanu and I don’t agree on most things, but one thing we can agree on is that he’s in no state to properly care for you, so I’m here to escort you to someplace that can.”

The sudden snideness of her response made Twilight and Spike force a smile. “Oh!” Twilight was the first to speak. “W… where is that?”

“It’s just a mile or so west of here. Don’t worry. The people there are really nice, and considering what you are, I’d be surprised if you weren’t treated like anything less than royalty!”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah,” Nanu said. “In fact, you should probably get going. My place is clearly not fit for a pony and dragon like you.”

“Pony?” Acerola asked.

“That’s apparently what she calls herself. Either way, you two should get going. I’m sure everyone there will get a kick out of you.”

“Uh… okay?” Twilight saw as Acerola quickly went down the stairs, and she and Spike followed her and towards the open doorway where she waited.

Nanu stood at the bottom of the stairs, about to watch them go as Twilight and Spike stopped. He looked expectantly as the two turned back to face him.

“Thank you again, Nanu,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, thanks a lot!” Spike called back.

“Come on, guys,” Acerola said, impatience filling her call. “Let’s get a move on!”

Spike slipped outside, and Twilight looked back at Nanu a few seconds more before she stepped out and closed the door on her way out. Alone once again, Nanu finally felt comfortable to sit himself at the foot of the stairs, pressing his face into his palm, a few dry sobs spilling from his breath.

Comments

[ShadowStar0]

Damn... What happened between Nanu and Acerola after the games? She's changed a LOT.

[KyleeTheShinyStealer]

Well, Acerola is a lot different. Something happened here and I want I find out what! I shall wait with interest...

[moviemaster8510]

9126874

A Gabite...defeating A FREAKING ALICORN...?

You mean an alicorn that hasn’t had any food or water for nearly 24 hours and has been traversing a desert while also using a constant stream of magic for several hours up until that point?

Sure, why not?