• Published 11th Mar 2017
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Pokémon Eclipse - moviemaster8510



Two teenaged siblings, having moved to the Alola region from Kalos, set off to complete the famous Island Trials, only for wormholes to appear across the region once again, this time summoning creatures from a mystical world calling themselves ponies

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Chapter 22 – Lost and Found

Applejack grunted as her stomach hit Olivia’s mattress, the remaining breath coming out as a long moan.

“I couldn’t even think of eating another bite.”

Rarity stumbled through the doorway, her front legs spreading out and making her support herself with her chin. “I don’t think I’ll eat for the rest of the week.”

“Well, each licked both of your plates clean,” Olivia said, stepping over Rarity’s lifted butt, “so I have to respect you both on that front, but give it a little time. Maybe you’ll have some room for something later tonight.”

“That’s awful nice of ya’, Olivia,” Applejack groaned, rolling to her side, “but I’m just about to burst right now.”

“As am I.” Rarity twisted herself so that she and the rest of her body laid flat on its side on the floor.

“Need a hand?” Olivia chuckled.

Without waiting for a response, Olivia hoisted Rarity with her arms under the ponies armpits and slung one arm over her shoulder as she walked her to her bed.

“Oh my. Thank you, Olivia darling.”

“Darling, my foot.” Olivia laid Rarity next to Applejack with their backs to each other. “No ‘darling’ ever had an appetite quite like mine.”

Neither of the ponies responded, but continued to groan as they let their digestive systems overwork themselves.

“You two need a nap?” Both ponies, however, were quick to respond to her with a single labored nod. “Okay then, I’ll do a little work in the shop and leave you two be.”

Oliva turned back to her exit doorway and turned back to check up on them one last time, smiling to see as her Stufful hopped onto the bed and draped itself around Applejack’s slowly rising belly before instantly dozing off. With a smile and single chuckle, she slowly closed the door behind her.

Noah and Amy laughed as they set up small plastic knight figurines on a large sandcastle sitting in the middle of a large, mostly featureless room with two rooks on the sides and a wide tower which was adorned with seashells and the bottom of a small red shovel on its top. It had two small glowing yellow dots for eyes in the outer windows of the tower and a gateway in the middle of the tower that resembled a mouth. Acerola watched carefully as the children ran back to a toy cannon placed a couple of feet from the sand castle’s base.

“We’re going to seize the kingdom!” Amy shouted.

“Okay!” Noah held his finger on a small red button in the cannon’s back. “One, two, three!”

Pressing the button, the small plastic cannonball in the chamber shot out and hit the sandcastle in the left side of the center tower. The tower leaned back as its eyes closed and its gate mouth opened wide in exaggerated playful agony, the section of the wall that the plastic ball hit crumbling away until a figurine sitting above it fell off, tumbling to the floor. The two kids cheered as they reached for the ball to reload the cannon.

Twilight couldn’t help but fascinate herself with the anthropomorphic sand-castle that the kids were battling. “That’s not hurting it, is it?”

“Nope!” Acerola quickly answered. “Palossand can decompose and recompose itself at will. It’s perfectly safe. Plus, she loves playing this game.”

Noah’s next shot hit the right rook of Palossand’s form, and it blasted sand backwards where it rolled into a pile along with the three plastic knights.

“Yeah!” The children both cheered.

Twilight giggled, also finding the mock war to be quite entertaining. “I have to say, it’s really neat what you do for these kids.”

“Well, you can’t just thank me.”

“Right, and Guzma too.”

“Nuh-uh! Guzma and I only come down to visit a couple of times each week.”

“So, you’re saying…”

“Yep. Aether House is home for these tykes. They take care of everyone under this roof right, and you and Spike are no exception.”

By now, the Palossand looked nothing like its former self, half the center tower fallen from the center to the right, and the rooks on both sides where now formless mounds. With a final firing of the toy cannon, the ball hit the Pokémon just above the top of the remaining left half of its mouth, causing the entire tower to topple over and break apart upon hitting the floor.

As the children cheered, the sand climbed up and reformed itself into three untouched towers, Palossand now looking good as new. Twilight grinned as she slunk herself behind the Palossand, Acerola cocking her head in mild confusion over what she would do. Once the children finished putting the figurines back on the Pokémon, they returned to lay back on their stomachs behind the cannon toy.

“The Aether army has returned!” Twilight’s voice called out. “Send out the big scary dragon!”

Instantly, Twilight stood herself up and flew just above Palossand, hissing at the two and making scary faces at them. Acerola and Twilight were pleased to see the children instantly going along with it.

Noah and Amy screamed in delight. “Quick!” Amy shouted. “Slay the dragon!”

Acerola couldn’t help but laugh as Twilight, her Palossand, and the kids were fully into it. Further down the room, Guzma stood in a squatted position in front of Spike. Beside Guzma was a large red and black spider with yellow-and-purple striped legs.

“Wow,” Spike said, “you use Bug Pokémon, and you say you’re a member of this Elite Four?”

Guzma pet his spider around the top to the bottom of its head, causing it to let out a clickity purr as its pincers opened and closed. “You sound surprised.”

“I mean, well… I didn’t think bugs would be very strong against… other Pokémon.”

Guzma huffed and smiled. Clearly the young dragon still had much to learn. “Bugs aren’t that strong, huh? Want to see another of my ‘not-so-strong’ Pokémon?”

Before Spike could answer the rhetorical question, he detached an Ultra Ball from his belt and lobbed it out far from them. Forming from the energy inside was a gargantuan bipedal insect with a thick and bulky dull-silver colored exoskeleton covering most of its de-saturated purple body. Three pairs of arms came from its abdomen, the top pair having large muscular forearms and claws on the end of it.

The insect bent itself down to look at Spike, who tripped over his tail as he tried to back away from its threatening physique. As it sniffed and felt Spike out with the small purple feelers on its face, Guzma gently patted his Pokémon’s neck, instructing it to back off.

“Don’t worry, Golisopod,” Guzma cooed, “he didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Holy cow!” Spike, seeing the Golisopod in a more submissive state, found the strength to stand back up and walk to it. “This thing looks awesome!”

“To be fair, I don’t let non-awesome Pokémon in my party. Go ahead, pal, show him.”

Reaching its left arm down, Golisopod took the claws of its right hand and pinched its left claws twice. Understanding the gesture, Spike held on to one of its left claws, where the Golisopod effortlessly pulled Spike up so that they could look at each other at eye level, Spike’s joyfully awestricken face already telling Guzma that he was seeing his Pokémon in a completely new light.

“Where’d you even find this guy?” Spike asked as he was let back down.

“Oh, him?” Guzma leaned against Golisopod, crossed his arms and one leg over the other. “We go way back, the two of us. I first caught him when he was a wee, little Wimpod. With lots of training and team-building together, he grew up into the big hulk you see before you today.”

“That’s so cool!”

“It really is. All I ever really wanted was to show the world how strong Bug-types… my Bug-types can truly be, and now, I’m one of the four toughest trainers in all of Alola.” Guzma’s face softened, something that came across as strangely poignant to Spike. “If I may, can I pass along a little wisdom?”

“Uh… sure thing!”

“Don’t ever let them tell you that that you’re weak, and don’t go crying in the corner when the world tries pushing you there and expect someone to tell you you’re perfect as you are. Just fight back with everything. Win or lose, you can only get stronger. I learned that pretty late in life, so I want you to take those words to heart. But most importantly, know who your true friends are. They make all the difference in where you end up in this world.”

Spike took a moment to soak everything he just heard in, but smiled as he understood it. “Yeah, you got it, Guzma!”

Guzma chuckled as he squatted back down, his knees supporting his elbows. “You’re alright, Spike. I think you and your flying unicorn friend will do just fine here.”

Offering his fist, Spike got the gesture and firmly pounded his own fist against his. “Thanks a lot, Guzma. You’re pretty cool yourself.”

“Pfft. Darn right, I am.”

The two shared a hearty laugh. Behind them, Twilight weakly continued hovering over Palossand, melodramatically clutching her chest with her hoof. She let out a tired roar as Noah and Amy loaded the plastic cannon ball again. With another shot, the ball lightly pelted Twilight just above the right eye, and with an exaggerated lean back and upward reach, she stopped flying and fell onto Palossand, spreading it all over the floor around her.

As the children and Acerola cheered their victory, Twilight got up and looked down at Palossand’s remains. “Hehe, sorry about that.”

The red shovel still sticking out from the pile left behind nodded in forgiveness. Rolling off the sand, Palossand reformed itself back together while Twilight brushed bits and grains of it off her back with her wings that quickly rejoined the rest of it.

Just then, the click of the intercom sounded from the corners of the room. “Would Twilight and Spike please come to Testing Room E.”

“Aww!” both children whined.

“That’s okay,” Twilight said to them. “We shouldn’t be too long, and you can continue playing with Acerola and Guzma.”

“Actually, we’re probably going to head out ourselves.” Guzma walked toward them with Spike sitting atop his shoulder with his Golisopod and spider Pokémon walking behind him.

“What?” Noah and Amy’s voices sounded even more anguished. “Can’t you at least stay until Twilight comes back?”

“No can do, guys. We were mostly here just to check up on our new friends.” Acerola picked out an Ultra Ball from her belt and aimed it at Palossand. “Say goodbye, you two.”

“Bye, Palossand.”

As the shovel atop its head wagged left and right, Acerola returned it to its ball. “Don’t you worry. We’ll be back on Saturday, and we should have even more time to spend together. Sound good?”

“Okay…” The sad and unsure voices of the children didn’t sit right with her.

“Oh, what the hey, come here and give your pal Acerola a hug!”

Kneeling down and throwing her arms open wide, both children ran to her and wrapped their arms around her neck, and she pulled them into her with her arms around their backs.

“And what am I, chopped liver?” Guzma set Spike down with another squat and motioned Noah and Amy to him. “Give your uncle some lovin’ too!”

Both kids ran from Acerola and put their arms around his back. Twilight and Spike both smiled as he stood up with both of them and twirled with them once before setting them back on their feet, making them laugh.

“See you on Saturday, Uncle Guzma!” Noah exclaimed.

“Bye, Uncle Guzma!” Amy called to him.

“Sorry guys.” Twilght backed away toward the doorway with Spike following alongside. “We need to see what they want.”

“Go right ahead,” Acerola said with a wave. “Don’t let us make you late. We’ll see you two on Saturday!”

“Yep! Bye, guys!” Spike shouted, waving back to them.

Guzma saluted them with both his index and middle fingers and flicked them at them with well wishes. Twilight and Spike then turned around and went through the sliding doors, not looking back as they closed behind them.

Olivia gently set a tray of freshly crafted earrings in the counter display while Carly rung a woman up for a narrow cuff bracelet made of jade. After setting them inside, Olivia quickly turned around as she heard the doorbell ring. Stepping through was a man in his late 20’s wearing dark blue jeans, a yellow shirt, and a white metal wristband with a technicolor marble with a unique black flame icon at the top of the wrist. Even with his blue-lens aviator shades and khaki trilby hat covering most of his sand-blonde hair, Olivia smiled and gasped, recognizing him instantly.

“Dexio!” Olivia stepped up beside Carly as the young man walked up directly on the other side of the counter from her. “It’s so good to see you!”

Dexio laughed with fondness as he took his glasses off and hung them off the collar of his shirt. “I can easily say the same, mademoiselle.”

Olivia chuckled. “Don’t try and flatter me into free jewelry, young man! Now, what can I get you?”

“Word around town is that you have some new accessories in stock. I was perhaps wondering if you possibly had any obsidian Mega Rings available.”

Olivia glanced to her right, quickly deducing the lack of any such item. “I don’t have any in stock, but I could make one for you really quick!”

“Oh, would you? You’d be a lifesaver if you could.”

Olivia came out from around the counter and began walking to the upstairs. “You woudn’t mind waiting an hour or two while I…” She slowly stopped as she had remembered.

“Yeah, I can wait,” Dexio answered. “Is something wrong?”

Olivia bit her lip in regret before she turned back to face him. “You know what? I had completely forgotten that a couple of friends of mine from Unova just ferried in about an hour ago, and they’re crashing on my bed at the moment. All my tools are up in there, and I don’t want to wake them. You didn’t need it this moment, did you?”

“Oh, not at all! My own Mega Ring is just fine. I just wanted to get a black one to match some new clothes I bought.”

“Oh, I see, nothing wrong with wanting to blend the right colors. Here, tell you what. You lend me that Mega Ring, and I can whip one up really quick after they wake up before the storms roll in tonight.”

“Storms?”

“Yeah, you didn’t read the Castform Radar? There’s a big red blob coming our way.” Dexio pulled out his Kalosian Pokédex and pressed on an app with a grey, bulbous Pokémon as the icon. Scrolling down to the radar section, he saw as a splotch of red with green outlines was traveling northeast and headed right toward them.

“Well, I’ll be. Shoot!”

“Can you make it?”

Dexio grimaced with his teeth clenched, appearing unsure. “…Yeah, I can still come, but it might be during the storm.”

“Oh, then if you need to, you can come back tomorrow morning before the shop opens!”

“…Yeah, that can work too.”

“What’s the hurry though? What do you need it for?”

Dexio massaged his back and purposefully kept eye contact off of her. “Oh, you know, if you’re not too busy, maybe we could…”

Olivia chuckled again. “Dexio, did you want to challenge me to a Pokémon battle?”

“Yes!!” Dexio cleared his throat as people resumed shopping, not realizing how loudly he answered it. “I mean, yeah. I just wanted to try it out, you know?”

“No, sure, I get it. So how’s about the Akala Outskirts at 9:00 tomorrow morning?”

“Then it’s a date!”

“Don’t push it,” Olivia purred, teasingly wagging a finger at him. “I’ll have your new Mega Ring ready for you then.”

“Perfect! Then, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Hold up!” She caught him just as he turned to step out. “If I’m going to get your new Mega Ring right, I’ll need to borrow yours. If you please.”

She reached forward, and after an awkward pause, Dexio slipped the white Mega Ring off his arm and slipped it around her fingers.

“Please be careful,” Dexio said, walking to the door. “That’s my only one!”

“In which case you’ll have at least two tomorrow.”

“See you later then, Olivia!”

Olivia waved her fingers to him as he exited, slipping the Mega Ring into her shorts pocket as she continued stocking the counters. Outside, Dexio turned and walked the long street to the edge of town, his hands firmly in both of his pockets. He glanced around and behind him, looking the way of each street and alley that he passed.

Once he got to the city’s gateway entrance, he took out one of five Poké Balls from his waist, lobbing it out. Appearing from it was a large, disk-shaped Pokémon made from metal with red eyes, a silver X-shaped plate across its face, and four massive arms appearing from each quarter of its radius. Dexio hopped upon it and knelt down for support. With a couple gentle pats, the Pokémon folded each of its arms up and began to levitate, floating away and heading north.

Twilight and Spike entered a similar room to the one they had entered that morning. The two different things about it were that there were no Aether employees or Pokémon watching them from any part of the room, and the screen on the wall was already up, showing Sun sitting at his desk, smiling upon the two entering.

“Welcome again!” he said, earning looks of subtle apprehension from Twilight and Spike. “I know our first meeting this morning went a bit awry, but you’ll thankfully not be talking to me for long.”

“Then are we talking to Professor Burnet?”

“Yes. I assume one of my employees told you during lunch. Anyway, I have her on hold right now. Let me transfer you over.”

With a click of a button on his keyboard, the top and bottom edges of the chat screen wiped down and closed the window. After a few seconds of a green line across the center of a blue screen, the borders parted again, revealing Burnet sitting at her own desk with her bookshelf serving as a humble background.

Seeing their faces made Burnet smile and wave at them. “Hi, there! I’m certain we haven’t been properly introduced. My name is Burnet. I’m a professor at the Dimensional Research Lab at Heahea City on Akala Island, though that probably doesn’t mean much of anything to you.”

“You said you met our friends.” Spike interrupted, stepping closer to the screen. “You gotta’ show us!”

“There’s really not much to show, but yes, I did meet with them. Starlight and Fluttershy.”

“You even know their names,” Twilight mumbled ecstatically to herself. “How are they? They’re both alright?”

“I’d say they’re more than alright. Let me show you what I can.”

With a couple of keystrokes, Burnet’s screen shrunk to the upper left hand corner of the screen, and another video slid in from the right, taking up most of the space. Twilight wondrously walked up to it as she saw Starlight and Fluttershy walking beside Sam and Alice as they met with Burnet inside the lab cafeteria. She stepped up to the screen and put her front hooves on it, gazing at the pixelated images of both of her friends standing there.

“Both of them honestly couldn’t have fallen into better hands.” Burnet stayed in the corner to allow Twilight to continue looking, Spike walking up to join them. “Not only are they strong enough trainers to survive a Team Prism encounter and be the first to spread the word about them, but they have been scouring all over Alola looking for your other friends.”

Twilight bowed her head down, letting out two heavy sobs as two tears fell to the floor, Spike rubbing her shoulder gently.

“You’ve probably heard it a million times already,” Burnet said as her face replaced the surveillance footage, “but I’d also like to apologize for pulling you away from your world and your friends. I feel like I’m just as responsible as the Aether Foundation for your predicament.” Twilight and Spike backed away to face her, the former wiping her eyes on her wrist. “But please take solace in the fact that your friends are very close to finding each other. Once they do, I will personally have them brought to the Aether House to you so that we can start right away on trying to get you all back home. Does this sound good to you?”

Twilight sniffled again, wiped her nose, and looked up to Burnet with a teary-eyed smile that radiated with eternal gratitude. “Yes, thank you. You and everyone at the Aether Foundation have been very helpful.”

“You don’t know how much longer until we get to see them, do you?” Spike asked.

“Not long, I can promise you. Just hold on a little longer, Spike. I have to be taking off, so I’ll return you to Sun. I’ll see you both later!”

“Bye, Burnet. Thanks again for your help.”

“It’s my pleasure. Farewell, Twilight, Spike!”

Her screen collapsed and quickly folded back up to reveal Sun sitting there, smiling warmly. “She’s very nice, isn’t she? Hey, uh, listen, before I let you go, I haven’t been able to get a hold of him recently, but whenever I can, I’d like you to speak with someone else today. He currently has two of your friends with him, and once I reach him, I can allow you to talk to them.”

“What!?” Twilight and Spike both ran to the screen, the news sounding too good to be true.

“How? Where!? When?” Twilight shouted.

“I’m not fully sure. He usually doesn’t like answering calls when he’s flying, so he may be still on his way to Akala Island. Whenever he lands, I’ll shoot him a call and let you talk to your friends.”

Spike twiddled his index claws, knowing the severity of what he was about to ask. “You don’t think he got attacked by Team Prism, did he?”

“Spike!” Twilight spat at him, stomping her hoof.

“No, Spike, he hasn’t, and neither have your friends.” Both of them looked up to Sun, who forced a barely convincing smile. “Your friends are all alright. I’m certain of it. In the meantime, I’m sending one of my closest associates and friends from our Paradise base to speak with you tomorrow in person. She’ll explain a bit more about the accident that brought you here, as she has been nearly as involved with it as I have.”

Twilight nodded. “I look forward to hearing what she has to say.”

“I’m glad about that. That said, you two are dismissed. I’ll hopefully see you soon.”

“Yes.” Twilight was choking up, hardly able to contain herself. “I hope so too.”

“Take care. Buh-bye.”

Once the screen collapsed and the monitor began to recede into the wall, Twilight felt safe and alone enough to finally bow her head and let more of her tears fall from her eyes. Spike also came close to her and gave her a hug on the chest, which she returned with a single arm wrapped around his back.

“Just a little bit longer, Spike,” she wept. “Just a little bit longer.”

Sun turned around from his desk, unsurprised to see Lillie standing still with her feet and hands together, safely far away from where his webcam could see her. He stood up and slowly walked to her.

“Why did you lie to them?” Lillie asked nervously. “They’ll find out sooner or later.”

Sun nodded, knowing this. “They’ve been put through enough today. Even if they don’t figure it out, I’m sure Gladion can explain why I said what I said. Right now, they need to feel that they and their friends are safe, which, to be fair, they are.”

“And what about Gladion!? Will he be okay?”

“Sssshhhshshsshh.” Sun stepped close to her and embraced her gently as she breathed heavily. “Hau said himself that he’ll probably be up really soon. Gladion will be perfectly alright. I promise you.”

Lillie nodded into his bosom and managed to pull herself back from him. “Thank you, Sun. If you excuse me, I have to get ready for tomorrow.”

“Sure.”

Sun nodded back to her and with a light bow, Lillie turned on her heel and walked to the exit of his office. Alone again, Sun sat himself back at his chair, grabbing onto both of his elbows and taking a heavy sigh with a weight on his shoulders that even he knew was nothing compared to whatever weights were on the shoulders of the ponies right now.

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