A non-canon story within the universe of "A New World, A New Way". When Dinky and her Clefairy go investigating in the Ponyville Cemetery, they find that they've bitten off far more than they can chew...
(Set within the universe of A New World, A New Way (though non-canon with said story). I suggest reading a little of that story to understand what all's going on. Plus, it's an awesome fic.)
Dinky Hooves and Clefairy have been best friends for some time now. After their chance encounter one day after school, the two were nearly inseparable. Of course, a couple of the other school ponies had their own Pokemon as well, but now Dinky was finally able to join that group.
A few weeks go by, and Dinky gets the idea to go exploring for Pokemon that don't hang out around Ponyville. With Clefairy by her side, she can go anywhere, right? Their first stop: the Ponyville Cemetery.
And that's where Dinky's life changes for the worst...
(Inspired by three Pokemon theories found here, here, and here.)
(Also, not meant to be taken all that seriously. This story was just an attempt to break my writer's block, so not that much effort was put into it.)
Dinky's little filly hooves made a quiet but constant clop clop clop noise as she slowly plodded down the hard-packed dirt path. The new moon made it difficult to see the path, but she was able to light the way with the help of her own magic. And failing that, her friend had some odd power that let her light the way whenever Dinky got tired.
"Clefairy," the tiny pink fairy chirped with a smile on its face as it bounced along the path next to Dinky.
"We're almost there, Clefairy," Dinky said to her friend. "Or do you want me to light the way for a little while?”
Dinky had met her Pokemon not too long ago after seeing the Cutie Mark Crusaders with their Pokemon at the pony-Pokemon meeting party Pinkie Pie threw a few months back. Clefairy was just bouncing around the schoolyard when Dinky found it. Nopony else had seen the Pokemon, and even so, Clefairy had seemed kind of fixated on Dinky. Dinky had heard a lot of ponies had had random Pokemon become attached to them not too long after Arceus brought them all to Equestria, so Dinky didn't think much of it. Clefairy was just another friend Dinky made, only this one was like a soul mate, and she met Clefairy without any effort at all.
By Clefairy's light, she and Dinky continued the rest of the way before they found themselves at the gate to Ponyville Cemetery. Dinky had heard rumors of some “odder” Pokemon hanging around there, so with Clefairy by her side, she couldn't help not investigate.
“Fairy...” Clefairy said uncertainly as she hid behind Dinky and hugged her friend tightly.
“Don't worry Clefairy,” Dinky said with a smile. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”
“Fair fairy?” Clefairy asked.
“I promise,” Dinky replied, assuming Clefairy had just asked something like 'Are you sure?'
“Fair... Clefairy!” the Pokemon chirped, now reassured. The two then made their way into the cemetery, not realizing that they were being watched by a ghostly goblin-like creature.
“Gengar...” the creature growled with a devious smile. It then slowly faded into the ground.
“Ghastly!”
“Misdreavus...”
“Litwik, Litwik!”
The cries of Ghost-type Pokemon quickly replaced the silence that Dinky and Clefairy were walking through previously. Fortunately for the two, none of them were bothering the two explorers.
“This place is creepy,” Dinky commented as she looked around at the Ghost-types, many of them quickly disappearing once they realized Dinky was looking at them.
“Clefairy...?” the little Pokemon asked, a little unsure when she heard her friend's tone of voice.
“Don't worry, Clefairy,” Dinky reassured once again. “I'm not scared. But are you scared?” Dinky added teasingly.
“Fair-ry!” Clefairy said angrily, puffing herself up to make herself seem a little larger.
“I know you're not,” Dinky said with a smile. “Come on, there's still some more I wanna check-” Dinky stopped dead when she felt something beneath her hooves. She looked down to see her hoof in some odd purple... goop, for lack of a better word. “Eww...” Dinky said as she brought her hoof out and shook it off. “Careful, Clefairy. One of those Ghost-types must have dumped this stuff.”
“Fairy,” Clefairy replied, hopping over the puddle.
Dinky walked around the puddle as best she could before following Clefairy further down the path. “That stuff smells awful, too,” Dinky commented as the two continued.
“Muuuuuuuuuuuuuk,” the puddle moaned as it retreated behind a nearby grave.
Dinky and Clefairy walked just a little further before they came across something odd in the path. A random gravestone. In the middle of the path.
“Fairy?” Clefairy asked in confusion as she looked over at Dinky.
“I dunno,” Dinky replied. “I understand this is a graveyard, but why would a gravestone be in the middle of the path like this?”
“Clef-clefairy,” Clefairy replied with a shrug.
With her Pokemon providing no answers, Dinky decided to move forward to take a closer look at the gravestone. Using her magic, she brought light to the grave so she could inspect it.
“'Here lies...,'” Dinky read. “'Here lies...' I can't read the last part of this. It looks... scratched out.” She then looked back at Clefairy, who once again shrugged. Dinky looked back at the grave, but found no clues other than 'Here lies...' “I wonder what-”
”You're here... I'm lonely.”
Dinky screamed and leapt backwards as she heard the loud but creepy voice come from the tombstone.
“Fairy, fairy!” Clefairy shouted as she clung to Dinky out of fear.
”So very lonely...” the voice continued. ”Won't you join me?”
Right as the voice said this, a loud crack was heard right in front of the grave. Dinky shone a light at the source of the noise to find what looked like a hand sticking up out of the ground. The hand was huge, really old, obviously decayed since it was in a grave, and, above all, the hand was white. Pure pale white. Even the dirt that the hand broke through quickly slid off as though some kind of magic was repelling it. But that wasn't what terrified Dinky. What terrified her was that she could finally read the rest of what the tombstone said. Just barely, but once she focused her light magic on the words, all the blood drained from her face.
Here lies Dinky Hooves.
“I think this is the part where we run away,” Dinky said to Clefairy.
“Clefairy,” the Pokemon replied quickly. The two then began running back down the path away from the grave. However, they skidded to a stop when two terrifying figures suddenly appeared before them, blocking the path completely.
“Gengar!” the figure on the left roared.
“Muuuuk!” the figure on the right roared.
“Ahh!” Dinky shouted.
“Clefairy!” Clefairy screamed while clinging to Dinky.
”I've waited too long for this...” the voice from before moaned. ”You two aren't getting away that easily.” Dinky and Clefairy turned around to see that more of the arm from before had broken through the ground and was swinging wildly.
“Clefairy, Clefairy,” Clefairy suddenly said to Dinky.
“What was that?” Dinky asked.
“Fairy, Clefairy,” Clefairy said while making punching motions.
“You want to try to fight them?” Dinky asked. “But-”
“Clefairy!” Clefairy shouted as she gestured back towards the grave, out of which a second arm had broken through. She then looked back towards the Gengar and Muk with a determined expression.
“Okay then,” Dinky said. She had overheard a little bit about Pokemon battles from some of Princess Twilight's friends, but she never expected to ever be in one herself. Nor did she really want Clefairy to battle. She just looked so... fragile. Unfortunately, there was no running from this battle.
“Gengar!” the Gengar shouted as it summoned a ball of shadow and fired it at Clefairy.
“Fairy!” Clefairy shouted as she started glowing. Then, all of a sudden, Clefairy shrank to about a fourth of her original size, causing the Gengar's Shadow Ball attack to sail right over her head.
“Woah!” Dinky shouted as she dived out of the way of the Shadow Ball. “I'm still here, Clefairy!”
“Fairy...” Clefairy apologized as she returned to her original size. She then turned to the two Pokemon before her. Her right hand then began glowing with a bright silver light as she focused her gaze on the Gengar. “Clefairy!” she shouted as she rocketed forward towards the Gengar at an almost blinding speed, hitting it right in the chest and sending it flying backwards with its Meteor Mash attack. As well as hitting Gengar, a faint red light started rising through Clefairy's body, signaling an increase in its Attack stat, but that light faded after a couple seconds.
“All right, Clefairy!” Dinky cheered. However, another crack! from behind her halted her celebrations. She quickly looked behind her to see that out of the grave behind her, the upper half of a body was now visible. It was well decayed and looked mostly like a human skeleton. The majority of it was brown like the dirt, except for the hands, both of which were white.
”Won't you join me?” the voice asked once again while reaching towards Dinky, who was actually several feet out of the creature's reach.
“Clefairy, I think we need to hurry up,” Dinky said as she turned back to her friend.
“Clefairy!” Clefairy shouted in reply. However, this distracted her for just a second, just long enough for the Muk to use its arm to slam Clefairy with Poison Tail, sending the little one flying.
“Oh no!” Dinky shouted as she rushed to catch Clefairy. Fortunately, she managed to catch the Pokemon.
“Are you alright?” Dinky asked.
“Fairy,” Clefairy replied with a nod. She then rose from Dinky's hooves looked back at the Muk and the Gengar that was just now rejoining its companion.
“Clefairy,” Dinky said, “do you think you have an attack that can hit both of them?”
“Clefairy,” the Pokemon replied, but there was a light tone of unsureness in this reply. Clefairy closed her eyes for a moment and began glowing with a light pink color, just lighter than her body. All of a sudden, Clefairy let loose a blast of blinding light at her two opponents. The two seemed hurt, but not by much.
In response to this failed attack, Muk and Gengar moved a little closer together and started charging some type of energy. A foul-smelling energy at that. Before long, both of them opened their mouths and fired two balls of what could only be assumed to be balls of purple highly-toxic sludge.
“Look out, Clefairy!” Dinky shouted.
“Fairy!” Clefairy shouted in response before raising her arms and putting up what looked like a wall of bright light. Fortunately, Clefairy's Light Screen was able to block the two Sludge Bombs for the most part, so Clefairy didn't take much damage from these attacks.
”You two are useless,” the voice from the grave said. ”I'll do this myself.” Dinky turned around to see that the creature was mostly out of the ground now, but it didn't try to get much further. Instead, it raised one of its hands into the air, where it started glowing brightly before detaching itself from the creature. The hand then began flying towards Clefairy while growing until it was just larger than Dinky.
“Oh no you don't!” Dinky shouted as she galloped forward towards the White Hand. “I won't let you hurt Clefairy!”
”Fool,” was all the creature said before its hand swatted Dinky away, causing her to fly right through a random passing Ghastly and into another tombstone.
Dinky got up slowly and coughed a little from inhaling some of the gases that comprised the Ghastly she flew through, but she didn't let that nor her injuries stop her. She galloped forward a second time, this time seeing that the White Hand was right on top of Clefairy, who had just then turned around to see the giant floating hand above it.
“Fairy...” Clefairy said, her voice dripping with terror.
“No!” Dinky shouted as she leapt forward and tackled the White Hand away from Clefairy. “Clefairy, we need to get out of-”
Dinky was cut off when the White Hand flew over and gave her a solid punch that sent her flying yet again.
“Clefairy!” Clefairy shouted. She then turned back to the White Hand and hit it with the strongest Meteor Mash she could muster, actually seeming to deal some significant damage to it. Clefairy then tried running towards where Dinky was, but she was stopped when Gengar appeared from the ground in front of her.
“Gar...” the Gengar growled with its normal mischievous smile.
“Fairy,” Clefairy growled in reply. It then raised its hand to its face and started waggling its finger, causing the finger to start glowing. With a flash of light, Clefairy lowered her finger, her eyes started glowing blue, and she materialized a multitude of small particles of psychic power around Gengar's head.
“Gen...” Gengar said with a tone of fear in its voice.
“Clefairy!” Clefairy shouted as it launched the Psyshock attack at Gengar, striking it from several directions and causing it to crash to the ground. Clefairy then bounced off towards where Dinky was laying.
“Clefairy...” Dinky said as her Pokemon made it to her side and hugged her. “I'm alright, but we still need to run.”
“Fairy,” Clefairy replied with a nod. She helped Dinky back to her hooves and the two began running, but not before Dinky suddenly felt herself be lifted off the ground. She looked up to find that it was the White Hand that was carrying her off.
“Clefairy, help!” Dinky shouted as she struggled to break free of White Hand's grasp.
“Clefairy!” Clefairy shouted as she quickly turned around and chased Dinky.
”I was hoping to have a Fairy-type for dinner,” Buried Alive said as he carried Dinky towards him. ”But perhaps one of you 'ponies' will suffice.”
“No, you can't eat me!” Dinky shouted. “I, uh, taste really bad. Like a Poison-type!”
”I like Poison-types,” Dinky heard Buried Alive say.
“Clefairy!” Clefairy shouted as it used Metronome once more while it chased Dinky. With a flash of light, Clefairy suddenly started becoming coated in flames. Clefairy panicked for a moment before she realized that Metronome has activated Overheat. With a shout, Clefairy focused the flames outward towards the wrist of the White Hand, burning it and causing it to drop Dinky. Without wasting a minute, Dinky quickly got up and started galloping towards Clefairy.
“Clefairy, please tell me that out of all the moves you know, you have one that can get us out of here!” Dinky shouted.
“Fairy,” Clefairy sadly replied as she shook her head.
”That's it,” Buried Alive said. It then rose its other arm and sent out its other White Hand after Dinky and Clefairy, both of whom found themselves woefully outmatched by the two White Hands, as well as the Gengar and Muk who were still advancing.
“I don't think we're gonna get out of this one, Clefairy,” Dinky said as the two backed away, only to find themselves up against the wall of the cemetery.
“Clefairy...” Clefairy said worriedly.
“I'm sorry, Clefairy,” Dinky said as she hugged Clefairy. “I never meant for this to happen.”
Right as Dinky said this, both the White Hands rushed forward to grab the pony and the Pokemon. However, they were stopped suddenly by two Shadow Ball attacks that came from behind Dinky and Clefairy. “What was-?”
“Zoroark!” a mysterious voice growled/shouted as what looked like another Pokemon landed in front of Dinky and Clefairy. It was mostly black with red hair, fox-like in appearance, and about as tall as any ordinary stallion. It glanced backwards and nodded at the two behind him before turning back towards the White Hands, Gengar, and Muk, all of whom were starting to back away.
“What is that thing?” Dinky asked.
“Zoroark!” the Zoroark roared once again before charging forward towards the assailants. It then leapt into the air before quickly using Dig right in front of the four. Zoroark wasn't gone for long before the ground just in front of the Muk exploded upwards with Zoroark giving it a powerful slash that knocked the Sludge Pokemon backwards. Then, while in midair, its claws began glowing with darkness (however that's possible) before giving the Gengar a powerful Night Slash, knocking the Shadow Pokemon backwards. It then turned to the White Hands and let out a powerful Snarl that didn't seem to damage the two much, but caused them to retreat momentarily. Zoroark then ran back towards Dinky and Clefairy.
“Thank y-” Dinky started, but she was cut off when Zoroark quickly picked the two up and started running out of the cemetery. The Illusion Fox wasn't running for long, however, before it got knocked to the ground by a powerful Fist attack from one of the White Hands, causing him to let go of Dinky and Clefairy and send them flying forward.
“Ahh!”
“Clefairy!”
Both of them hit the ground hard. Clefairy, like most other Pokemon, was built to take the amount of punishment she had taken. Dinky, on the other hoof, wasn't. Her injuries had already been great, and now she was in so much pain she could barely move.
“Clefairy, Clefairy!” Clefairy shouted as it ran over towards Dinky.
“Run, Clefairy,” Dinky said quietly, her pain keeping her from speaking very loudly. “I can't move any more.”
Clefairy was about to try to get her friend to get up, but she looked back to see the Zoroark who tried to save them become quickly pinned by Buried Alive's Muk. The Fairy Pokemon knew that in Dinky's state, her only hope was that Zoroark. It took little more than a second longer for Clefairy to make up her mind.
“Clefairy,” the Pokemon said to Dinky while hugging her tightly with tears in her eyes. “Clefairy fairy.”
“Clefairy, what are you doing?” Dinky asked as Clefairy got up and ran towards the Muk, getting ready to hit it with another Meteor Mash. With a bright flash of light, Clefairy flew forward and struck the Muk with all her might, causing it to retreat off the Zoroark. Clefairy's eyes and hands then began glowing yellow before firing a small ball of yellow light towards the Muk. She then ran off in the opposite direction, hitting Gengar and the White Hands with Follow Me as well, causing all four of them to quickly give chase.
“Clefairy!” Dinky tried to shout as her best friend ran off out of her sight. “Clefairy, wait!” But she didn't have long to scream before the Zoroark got up, grabbed Dinky, and started running again. Dinky tried to get the Zoroark to stop, but the jostling caused by its running just added to the pain Dinky was in. It wouldn't be too much longer before Dinky blacked out, the last things she remembered being a high-pitched scream that she could only assume to be Clefairy's and three terrifying words.
”Finally... fresh meat...”
And then the world around Clefairy went completely dark.
Dinky could barely hear a number of voices around her as she slowly returned to consciousness. However, it was a little while longer before her vision came back. As her eyes slowly opened, she found that she was looking up at a forest canopy. The leaves of the trees formed a ceiling with many holes in it that let sunlight stream in towards where Dinky lay. After viewing what was above her for a moment, Dinky hazily looked over to see four figures not too far from where she was. Two of them were rather bulky in build, and the other two were noticeably thinner. The bulky ones and one of the skinny ones looked to be about the same height as an average mare, but the last one looked like it was almost as tall as Princess Celestia herself, maybe even a little taller.
Dinky tried to rub her head, but noticed that her hooves were caught under something. A quick glance down revealed that she was currently lying under what looked like a blanket made of leaves and silk string.
“Wha...?” Dinky asked as she tried to take the blanket of leaves off.
“Leavanny!” the short skinny figure shouted as it rushed forward towards Dinky. “Leavanny Leavanny!”
Upon closer view, Dinky saw that the creature was bipedal and looked like a bug for the most part, but it was also dressed in leaves. With how odd it looked, Dinky could only assume this creature was another Pokemon.
“She's upset with you,” another voice said to Dinky, this one oddly fast. She cocked her head to the right to find the other skinny creature walking up to Dinky, followed by the other two. The creature who spoke was also bipedal, and it wore a gray jacket, white pants, and a black cap. He also had messy but still long green hair. “Leavanny is never happy when someone messes with her creations of leaves.”
“I... what?” Dinky asked. “I'm sorry, but-”
“Oh, no, it's ok,” the creature said as he knelt down to see Dinky better. “You've been through a lot. I'd understand if you were confused.”
Dinky was silent.
The creature sighed before continuing. “I'll try to give you everything one at a time. First off, my name is N, and these are some friends of mine. Leavanny you've met. This one is Miltank.” He indicated one of the bulky creatures, which Dinky recognized as some type of cow, only this one stood upright. “And the other one is Chansey.” Chansey was mostly a large pink ball with some feather-like attachments to her head and a pouch on her belly which held an egg.
“Are you all Pokemon?” Dinky asked.
“Not all of us,” N replied. “They are, but I'm a human. I'm sure you've at least heard of my kind.”
“I heard Arceus turned all you 'hoomans' into Pokemon,” Dinky said with a tone of confusion in her voice.
“Perhaps he did...” N said. “But what good is an existence without mysteries?”
“Well-” Dinky started, but she was cut off when she heard a soft growling noise. It took less than a second to register that the noise was coming from her own stomach. “Eh heh heh... I don't think I've had anything to eat since last night. Do you know what time it is?”
“Just before noon, I believe,” N replied.
“Chansey,” Chansey chirped as it stepped forward proceeding to pick up its egg and hand it to Dinky. “Chan Chansey.”
“She's offering you breakfast,” N explained. “It's not every day that a Chansey actually offers its egg to someone.”
“Ok,” Dinky said. She then turned back to Chansey and took the egg. “Thank you, Chansey.”
“Chansey Chansey!” the Pokemon replied with a smile.
“It looked like she was fond of this egg,” Dinky said. “Will it be ok?”
“She can make another egg easily,” N replied. “Go ahead and eat that one, though. It's very nutritious.”
Dinky wasn't sure about what N was saying, but she decided to take a bite of the egg anyway. The egg tasted really good, like it was full of life energy. As Dinky swallowed the bite she took, she thought about how happy the egg made her feel for some reason. Almost happy enough to forget about-
“CLEFAIRY!” Dinky suddenly shouted, startling everyone around her.
“What?” N asked.
“I was with Clefairy last night,” Dinky said. “We got attacked by something. I don't remember much, but...” Dinky then started crying. “But whatever it was, it took her. She was my best friend, too.”
N wasn't sure how to confront the situation before him. He was used to comforting Pokemon, but the time he'd spent in Equestria so far had taught him that ponies weren't quite the same as Pokemon.
“Uh...” N said while reaching an unsure hand towards Dinky. “There there, don't cry. I'm sure your Clefairy's alright.”
“That thing said it wanted to eat her,” Dinky replied. “Oh, why did I drag Clefairy with me to that stupid graveyard?” It was then that Dinky started crying loudly again.
“Wait a second,” N said. “Did you say you were in a graveyard?”
“Y-yes,” Dinky said through her tears. “W-we wanted to see some P-Pokemon that didn't hang around Ponyville.”
“Do you know exactly what it was that attacked you two?” N asked.
Dinky managed to stop crying for a moment, but her voice was still shaky. “A Gengar, a Muk, something that tried crawling out of a grave, and its hands. But the hands were huge and they were floating around.”
“Oh no,” N said. “I think I know what exactly happened to you and Clefairy.”
“Really?” Dinky asked. “Aside from us getting randomly attacked, right?”
N shook his head with an expression on his face that said he was less than enthusiastic to explain what he was about to to Dinky. “I'm afraid this was no random attack,” he finally said. “I fear you disturbed one of the most dangerous spirits in Pokemon history.”
“What does that mean?” Dinky asked. N was silent. “What does it mean?”
N shook his head, but spoke this time. “It's not a pretty story,” he said. “But even so, it would be too much trouble to tell.”
“But will the story tell me what happened to Clefairy?” Dinky asked. N sighed.
“I'm afraid so,” he finally said. He then turned to his Pokemon companions. “You three should leave for now.”
Leavanny, Chansey, and Miltank could tell from N's tone that it would be wise to follow his directions, so they all departed from view, leaving Dinky and N in the clearing.
“There's a few parts to this story, and the first part is a little easier to say,” N started. “I was in the woods last night. While there, I heard you and Clefairy screaming and some kind of commotion going on. I looked over to find that you two were in trouble. I recognized the Pokemon you were facing and instantly leapt into action. I fought your four assailants off before picking you two up and trying to run you back to safety, but the creature who attacked you, Buried Alive, had his Pokemon and White Hands give chase, one of them knocking me to the ground, causing me to drop you. After that, its Muk attacked me and kept me from getting to you.”
“Wait a second-” Dinky started.
“I know what you're about to say,” N said. “That detail will be touched upon in a moment. The Muk had me pinned and I was unable to get out, but then Clefairy attacked it, allowing me to get up. Then Clefairy turned to me. 'Get Dinky out of here,' she said. 'She's hurt to badly to move anymore, so you're her only hope. I'll draw the others away. Dinky is more important to me than I am, and I could never live with myself if I survived this and she didn't.'” N paused for a moment before continuing. “I'd only seen that kind of a commitment to a trainer in a few other Pokemon, and I would have been more moved had I not had to comply with her wish and get you out of there. So I picked you up and ran as fast as I could before I brought you to this clearing. Then I and the others you saw before watched you until you woke.”
“But does that mean Clefairy is...?” Dinky started, but she didn't dare finish her own question. Instead, she opted to rephrase it. “Is there a way to save her?”
“And that's where we get to the second part of the story,” N said. “But Dinky Hooves, I need you to be brave, and be ready to face the truth I'm about to reveal to you.”
“But could the rest of the story tell me how to save Clefairy?” Dinky asked. “That's all I wanna know right now.”
“Perhaps,” N said. “But I must apologize if you don't find the answer right away. And I must also apologize if what you see is... terrifying.”
“I'll be brave,” Dinky said as she looked up. “For Clefairy.”
“So be it,” N said. He then stood up and took a few steps away from Dinky. Then, he lifted his head slightly and started glowing with a slightly golden light. Particles of light swirled around him, all of which started to turn dark before completely engulfing his body. When the particles faded, however, what remained was not N, but rather a Zoroark. One Dinky recognized as the one who saved her the night before.
“No way...” Dinky said as she stared wide eyed.
It was right then that Zoroark looked up with a slight glint in its eye. “Zoroark!” it roared before rushing forward towards Dinky with one of its claws in striking position.
Dinky could do nothing but scream as Zoroark pounced and the world around her went dark once again.
Dinky wasn't sure what was going on. One moment she was in a forest clearing with a Zoroark inches from pouncing on her, and the next, she found herself in a strange town. What was strange about it was that not one of the inhabitants of the town was a pony, but rather a creature similar to N (or at least what N was when Dinky first met him.), as well as the fact that everything Dinky saw was in sepia for some reason.
“What's going on?” Dinky asked, her voice echoing for some reason. She looked behind her to find that there was some boy about N's age walking by. “Excuse me, mister, where am I?”
The boy didn't answer, but rather walked right by Dinky. “Odd,” Dinky said to herself. “It's like I'm not even here.”
“You are trapped in an illusion,” an odd but familiar voice said to Dinky.
“N?” Dinky asked.
“Follow the boy who just walked by if you seek the answers to your questions,” N's voice said.
“But wait,” Dinky shouted. “Where even is this place?”
“Welcome to Lavender Town,” a female voice said. Dinky turned around to find that the boy N indicated was talking to another human, this one a girl. It was here that Dinky noticed what the boy looked like. Despite her vision being in sepia, Dinky could tell that the boy wore a red and white baseball cap, an open red jacket, blue jeans, and black shoes. Around his belt were six tiny orbs, the top half of which were red, the bottom half white, and the center stripe dividing the two hemispheres black.
“Hi, my name's Red,” the boy said to the girl. “I heard there were some Pokemon around here that don't hang around anywhere else, so I wanted to check it out.”
“You heard right,” the girl replied. “They're all in that tower over there. The one that overlooks the whole city.” The two turned towards a huge tower that looked almost as tall as a full-grown dragon to Dinky.
“Alright,” Red said.
“But hey,” the girl said, “before you go up there, there's something I need to ask you. Do you believe in ghosts?”
“Well, no,” Red replied.
“Oh, ok,” the girl said. “Then I guess that white hand on your shoulder isn't real.”
With a startled expression on his face, Red looked on his shoulder to find... nothing. “Heh heh,” he chuckled nervously. “I don't see any-” He turned around to find that the girl had somehow disappeared. Even Dinky didn't manage to see where she went.
“Weird,” Red said. He then turned to the tower that loomed over him. “If I'm gonna complete the Pokedex for Professor Oak, I've gotta scale that tower.” Red then began running into the tower.
“Ghosts, huh?” Dinky asked herself. “Maybe that tower's where the clues to saving Clefairy will be.” Dinky looked down for a moment before saying, “I promise to save you if there really is a way.” She then galloped into the tower after Red.
Saying there were all manner of ghosts inside the tower would probably have been a lie. For the most part, all that were in there were just Ghastly and Haunter with the occasional Gengar. “Woah,” Red said as he looked around at the Ghost-types, most of which disappeared when they caught Red's gaze. “Who knew Ghost-types were so numerous. I suppose that's what I get for exploring the place where Pokemon are laid to rest.”
Red got attacked by several of the Pokemon on his way up the tower, but for the most part, he fought them off with a Charmeleon.
“This guy's really good at Pokemon battles,” Dinky said to herself as she followed Red up the last set of stairs. “He must be best friends with his Pokemon.”
Once Red had climbed the stairs, he found himself at the beginning of a hall. There wasn't a single Pokemon in this hall, but at the end stood two graves, on either side of which were two statues. “Odd for the top floor of a cemetery to only have two graves,” Red commented as he walked forward. “Maybe these are for the original curator and his Pokemon?”
“Or maybe for something totally different,” Dinky thought out loud as she followed Red towards the graves.
Once Red got to the grave on the right, he knelt down and read the inscription. “'Here lies...'” Red read. “Huh? The last part's scratched out. Who'd have the audacity to mess with a grave like this? Team Rocket?”
”You're here... I'm lonely.”
Both Red and Dinky were startled by the voice. Both of them because they hadn't expected it, but mostly Dinky because she knew she had heard the voice before. That exact line, in fact.
“It's him...” Dinky said as she took another step back.
”So very lonely... Won't you join me?”
“What the heck is going on?” Red asked. Right as he asked this, though, a scenario all too familiar to Dinky played out. A loud crack was heard in front of the grave as a pale white hand broke through the ground. However, unlike how Dinky remembered, the hand had a Pokeball in it.
“Oh, I see how it is,” Red said as he grabbed one of his own Pokeballs and held it forward. “Whatever you are, if it's a battle you want, it's a battle you'll get. Go, Haunter!” He then threw his Pokeball forward, the device exploding in midair and letting out a stream of light energy which quickly congregated a little forward of where the ball opened and faded to reveal one of the Haunter Red caught on his way up the tower.
“Haunter!” the Pokemon shouted as it raised its hands at its foe and gave it an intimidating glare.
“This might be our first battle together, Haunter,” Red said, “but I believe in you.”
“Haun,” Haunter replied with a nod.
Without a word, the hand threw its Pokeball and sent out a Gengar, the evolved form of Haunter.
“Another Ghost-type, huh?” Red asked. “This should be a fun battle. Haunter, use Shadow Punch!”
“Haunter!” the Pokemon shouted as it flew forwards at Gengar while winding its hand back for a punch.
“Gengar...” the Gengar chuckled as it faded into the ground before Haunter could make contact with it.
“Can you follow it into the ground?” Red asked Haunter.
“Haun,” the Pokemon replied with a nod before fading into the ground after Gengar.
After a few seconds, Haunter was suddenly launched out of the ground and into the air before it fell to the ground at Red's feet.
“Oh no, Haunter!” Red shouted as he looked down at his fainted Pokemon. He pulled out one of his Pokeballs and aimed it at Haunter. “Haunter, return.” The ball fired a beam of red light that enveloped Haunter and returned him to his Pokeball as energy. “I'm sorry your first battle didn't go well. I promise to make it up to you somehow.” Red then looked up as the Gengar returned to his view, wearing its signature evil grin. Red placed Haunter's Pokeball back in his belt before grabbing another Pokeball. “So we're gonna play like that, are we? Well two can play the hacks game. Go, Eevee!” Red threw the Pokeball into the air before it exploded to reveal a tiny brown fox-like creature with white fur around its neck, large brown ears, and massive brown eyes.
“Eevee!” the Pokemon chirped.
“Ghost-type moves can't affect a Normal-type from what Bill told me,” Red thought out loud. “Still, this isn't any ordinary Gengar, nor any ordinary battle. I have to be careful.” Red took a deep breath before giving his first command to Eevee. “Eevee, use Bite!”
“Vee!” Eevee shouted before rushing towards the Gengar while baring its fangs. (Which looked incredibly adorable if you can picture it in your mind.)
“Gengar!” the Gengar shouted as it tried to counter-attack the Eevee with Shadow Punch. However, the attack passed right through the Evolution Pokemon, and Gengar took a powerful Bite right to its face.
“Alright, Eevee!” Red cheered as Eevee returned to its position in front of Red. “One more Bite should be enough to finish it off, so go for it!”
“Eevee!”
Gengar, on the other hand, wasn't about to lose so easily. “Gengar!” it shouted as it opened its mouth and hurled a powerful Sludge Bomb at Eevee.
“Eevee, look out!” Red shouted.
“Vee!” Eevee cried as it just barely dodged Gengar's attack. The smaller Pokemon then got back up and charged forward at the Gengar once again.
“Gen, Gengar!” the Gengar shouted as it continued hurling Sludge Bomb after Sludge Bomb at Eevee. However, the Evolution Pokemon was too small and nimble and was able to dodge every attack before leaping up and Biting down hard on the Gengar's shoulder, this time latching onto it. The Shadow Pokemon began flailing around, desperately trying to get the Eevee off of it, but to no avail.
“Don't let go, Eevee!” Red shouted.
“Vhh,” Eevee tried to reply as it continued to hold onto the Gengar.
After what was probably another minute of flailing, Gengar was finally so weak that it just stopped in its tracks and dropped to the floor, defeated.
“Alright, Eevee!” Red cheered as the Evolution Pokemon let go of the Gengar and ran back into a hug from its trainer.
“Vee!” Eevee cheered.
Meanwhile, the hand that had thrown Gengar's Pokeball recalled its Pokemon before a second hand rose out of the ground next to it. The two arms worked together to pull up what looked like a decayed upper half of a human.
“Sweet Arceus!” Red shouted. “What the heck is that thing, anyway?”
”Why won't you join me?” the creature asked as it reached out towards Red. ”I'm so lonely...” The creature then pulled out another Pokeball and threw it, sending out what looked like a massive pile of purple sludge.
“Muuuuuk!” the Pokemon moaned.
“A Muk, huh?” Red asked. He then looked down to his Eevee. “You think you can go for one more round?”
“Eevee,” the Pokemon replied before leaping out of Red's arms and taking a battle-ready position against the Muk.
“Alright,” Red said. ”Something about this battle isn't right,” the trainer suddenly found himself thinking. ”If that creature was Gengar's trainer, how come it didn't give any commands? 'Careful' might be the key word here. I have no idea just how different from a normal battle this is.” Red then adjusted his cap before shouting “Eevee, use Take Down!”
“Eevee!” the Pokemon shouted before running towards Muk with incredible speed.
“Muk!” the Sludge Pokemon shouted as it raised its arm and used it to powerfully swat Eevee away before its attack could make contact.
“Veeeeee!” Eevee shouted as it flew halfway across the hallway right into Red's arms.
“Eevee!” Red said as he looked down at his fainted Pokemon. “It only took one hit for that Muk to KO Eevee...” Red then pulled out Eevee's Pokeball and recalled the Evolution Pokemon. ”I wonder if I should have used that stone Misty gave me...” Red thought to himself as he put Eevee's Pokeball away and pulled out another one. “Alright then. Let's change it up. Go Slowbro!” Red then threw his Pokeball forward, sending out a pink cross between a cat, a monkey, and a dinosaur, with another creature biting down on its tail.
“Slowbro!” the Pokemon shouted as it readied itself for battle.
“Let's not waste any time, Slowbro,” Red said. “Use Psychic!”
“Slow!” the Hermit Crab Pokemon shouted before its eyes began to glow blue and a huge blast of pure psychic energy was hurled at the Muk.
“Muuuuuk!” the Sludge Pokemon shouted as it recoiled away from the Slowbro's attack.
“We've got him,” Red said. “Alright Slowbro, hit him with Zen Headbutt!”
“Slow...” the Pokemon said as it tucked its head in and it began glowing blue. “BRO!” He then rocketed himself forward, hitting the Muk dead-on with the attack.
“Let's finish him,” Red said. “Water Pulse!”
“Slowbro!” Slowbro shouted as it opened its mouth wide and a powerful blast of water erupted out and struck the Muk.
“MUUUUUUK!” the Sludge Pokemon shouted as it fell. Well, it looked like it was trying to fall, but rather it was just unable to maintain its form and began sinking into a puddle. It was then that the creature that sent Muk out recalled it.
”Impossible...” the creature said. ”You have defeated all of my Pokemon... and yet you still won't join me...”
“I'm not gonna join you, whatever you are,” Red said.
”Yes you are...” the creature said. It then raised one of its hands and it suddenly detached and flew towards Slowbro, quickly growing in size before it was just about the Pokemon's size.
“Slowbro?” Slowbro asked in shock. Its question was never answered, however. Instead, the hand suddenly became a fist and flew forward, striking Slowbro and sending it flying.
“Slowbro!” Red shouted as he watched his Pokemon fly over his head and land hard on the ground on the other side of the hall. Red then pulled out Slowbro's Pokeball. “Slowbro, return!” Despite the distance, the beam fired from the Pokeball and hit Slowbro perfectly, recalling the fainted Pokemon back into its Pokeball. Red then pulled out another Pokeball and turned to the floating hand. “You're something entirely different, aren't you? Well two can play at that game. Go Machoke!”
Red threw his Pokeball, and out of it came what looked like a humanoid roughly Red's size, except it was entirely purple and bulging with muscles. “Machoke!” the Pokemon shouted as it flexed its muscles.
“Be careful, Machoke,” Red said. “I'm not sure what this thing is, but it's gonna take a lot of effort to beat it. I can tell.”
“Choke,” the Machoke replied with a nod.
“Then let's get started. Hit it with Karate Chop!”
“Machoke!” the Pokemon shouted before it reared its fist back and flew forward at the White Hand. Before the latter could do anything, Machoke brought its hand down in a swift chop that hit dead-on.
“Nice hit, Machoke!” Red cheered. However, this celebration was premature as, upon taking a second look, the White Hand seemed to take almost no damage.
“Choke...” Machoke said as it took a step backwards. Taking advantage of its foe's unsureness, the White Hand quickly reared up and slapped Machoke into the wall to their left, leaving a huge indent with several cracks right where the Pokemon impacted.
“Oh no!” Red shouted. “Machoke, return!” Red pulled out Machoke's Pokeball and recalled it. “If that's how you're gonna play, let's change things up a bit...” Red then pulled out another Pokeball. “Go Parasect!” Red then threw the Pokeball, sending out what looked kind of like some kind of insect crab with a massive mushroom as its shell.
“Parasect!” the Pokemon shouted.
“No time for banter,” Red said to his Pokemon. “Use Stun Spore!”
“Para!” Parasect shouted before it began shaking the mushroom on its back, unleashing an odd-looking powder that fell upon White Hand. Suddenly, it began twitching and what looked like bolts of electricity began flowing all across it.
“We've got it!” Red shouted. “Now Parasect, hit it with X-Scissor!”
“Para...” Parasect said as it reared its pincers back. “SECT!” Parasect then launched its pincers forward and struck the White Hand, launching it into the wall.
“Alright!” Red cheered. “Now, get in close and use Giga Drain!”
“Sect,” Parasect replied. It then moved forward and was about to attack the White Hand, but it was right then that the latter recovered from its paralysis and gave the Parasect a powerful punch that knocked it backwards into the other wall.
“Parasect, no!” Red shouted. He then pulled out Parasect's Pokeball and recalled the fainted Mushroom Pokemon. He then turned around and glared at the White Hand.”I've still got one Pokemon left, and I know he can defeat you.” Red then pulled out his last Pokeball. One that held the Pokemon he held most dear. “I'm counting on you, Charmeleon!” Red shouted as he threw his Pokeball, sending out his precious Flame Pokemon.
“Charmeleon!” it shouted.
“It all comes down to you, Charmeleon,” Red said. “Use Flamethrower!”
“Char!” Charmeleon shouted before it opened its mouth and sent a powerful blast of flame forward, engulfing the White Hand in flames.
“Don't give it a chance to breathe!” Red shouted. “Follow up with Dragon Rage!”
“Charmeleon!” the Pokemon shouted before it opened its mouth again, except this time, rather than a steady blast of fire, he only launched a single ball of blueish flame, striking the White Hand perfectly and causing it to float backwards.
“Finish it off! Use Slash!”
“Charmeleon!” The Pokemon's claws began glowing white before it charged forward and brought its claws down powerfully upon the White Hand, causing it fall backwards and onto the ground before it disappeared completely.
“All right, Charmeleon!” Red cheered. “I knew you could do it!”
Charmeleon turned around to its trainer and smiled. “Char!” it cheered along with its trainer.
”I'm... not... finished!” the creature shouted before it launched its other hand forward, quickly forming into a creature similar to the one Charmeleon had just defeated.
“Don't back down, Charmeleon,” Red reassured. “I believe in you!”
“Charmeleon,” the Pokemon said with a nod. However, that little nod left the Pokemon distracted just long enough for the White Hand to give the Flame Pokemon a powerful punch, knocking it backwards.
“Charmeleon! Are you ok?” Red asked. In response to this, Charmeleon quickly got up and shook himself off.
“Char,” Charmeleon said with a nod.
“Good,” Red said. “Now, hit that thing with Inferno!”
“Charmeleon!” the Pokemon shouted as the flame on its tail and the flame in its mouth both quickly began to grow before almost its whole body was cloaked in fire. It then fired all the flame right at the White Hand. The attack hit dead-on and managed to set fire to the White Hand.
“Direct hit!” Red cheered. However, he wasn't cheering for long before the White Hand flew up and grabbed Charmeleon, proceeding to lift it into the air.
“Charmeleon!” the Pokemon shouted as it struggled to break free.
“Oh no!” Red shouted. “Charmeleon, get out of there with Dragon Rage!”
“Char-” the Pokemon started, however, it was interrupted when the White Hand suddenly threw Charmeleon down to the ground with full force, causing to go right through the ground and impact on the floor below.
“CHARMELEON, NO!” Red shouted as it ran over to the hole in the floor and looked down at his defeated Pokemon.
Red is out of usable Pokemon.
“This can't be...” Red said with a shaky voice. “How could this happen?” It was right then that the White Hand suddenly came up behind Red and grabbed him, lifting him into the air and pulling him towards the creature at the grave. “Hey! What's going on!?'
”Finally...” the creature said as it grabbed Red from its hand and began dragging him down into the grave. ”Fresh meat...”
“No! NO!” Red shouted as he tried to struggle against the creature's grip. But it was useless. He was already halfway into the grave and sinking fast with the creature. “CHARMELEON! ANYONE! HELP!!!!!”
And then Red's head went under, and he was gone.
Game over
Dinky slowly and carefully cantered over to the grave where Red disappeared with Buried Alive. “What... what just happened?” Dinky asked nopony in particular. It was then that she read the inscription on the grave.
Here lies Red
“But... I don't understand...” Dinky said. Suddenly, the world around her began to glow brightly before she seemed to black out once again.
Dinky quickly woke up with a shout, finding that she was back in the forest clearing, all the color around her looked normal, and, sitting in front of her, was N, no longer a Zoroark, but rather in his human form once again.
“Do you understand?” N asked before Dinky had a chance to ask any of her questions.
“N-no,” Dinky said. “I don't understand a thing. What are you? What just happened? How is this supposed to help me save Clefairy?”
“A Zoroark, and I showed you an illusion, to answer your first two questions,” N replied. “A lost memory, to be exact. A memory that the universe forgot and redid until it got the time line correct. Technically, it never happened. Nor did Buried Alive. But the universe wasn't able to remove him forever. After the temporal anomaly caused by Arceus moving all his Pokemon from the old world to this one, Buried Alive was able to escape into Equestria.”
“So then, that thing that happened to Red...” Dinky said. “Is that what happened to Clefairy?”
N was silent for a moment before saying, “I'm afraid so.” This caused Dinky to quickly tear up at the thought of her Clefairy getting grabbed by that thing, dragged into a grave, never to return...
“Is there a way to save her, though?” Dinky asked.
Once more, N was silent. Except this time, he was silent for longer than before. “Technically, there's no way to save Clefairy,” he finally said. “Unless... we do the same thing the universe once did to Buried Alive.”
“What does that mean?” Dinky asked.
“It's hard to explain,” N replied. “It would be easier to show you another illusion. Are you ready?”
Dinky took a deep breath before replying. “Just show me what I have to do to save her this time.”
“I will,” N said. He then turned back into a Zoroark and charged forward to trap Dinky in another illusion.
