> Mystery Dungeon: Equestrial Plains
>  by TheDeku
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> One Heck of a Mystery Dungeon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Ponyville, 11:25 AM. It was a normal day, which isn't saying much. Perhaps an unexciting day would be a more appropriate term. Rainbow Dash was moving some clouds for some small amounts of rain later in the day, but nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Well, aside from Pinkie Pie bouncing down the road, which only struck Rainbow as odd because she was doing it backwards and saying bye to ponies she passed rather than hi. PInkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, she supposed. Rarity was out shopping, Applejack was selling her apples, a black and white streak flashed down the road, everything just plain bor-
"Wait, what?" Rainbow Dash took off after it, but couldn't catch up to it because she made sure no pony got hurt by that thing's speed. "Hey, slow down!" Rainbow yelled at the blur. "Don't you know that some pony could get hurt?"
Getting no response, she increased speed and began to catch up with the streak. It appeared to be running, but no pony she knows could run that fast other than her, and she like  to think that she would know any pony who could. The blur didn't seem to notice any pony it nearly ran into, but it also didn't go out of it's way to hit any pony, either. If Zecora could move at Rainbow's speed, then it could be her, but she can't.
"Idea! HEY STUPID ZEBRA! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Rainbow hoped that by making it mad it would respond. She was right... but not in a way she was happy with. It sent a bolt of electricity directly at her, not harming her but forcing her to land and stop after getting hit. Notably, that made her mad. "Alright, that's it. No more Mrs. Nice Rainbow Dash!"
She flies up to get a better view of where the supposed zebra went, and flies down after it when it comes to a stop a good distance from town.
"Where could she be? She should be - no, she has to be here!" Now clearly a zebra, and possessing a voice unmistakably male, he seemed to be berating itself. Noticing Rainbow coming closer, he got in a fighting stance. "Oh? Come back to fight? You may want to back down as I have the clear advantage."
"Wait, fight you? How do you have any advantage?" Rainbow hoped she didn't smash her hope of not getting into a fight.
"My advantages: I have way more speed than ever before and can't wait to keep using it, electric beats flying, and I am extremely desperate to find my partner so I have nothing to lose in a place where no one knows me. Do you still question my advantage?" He retorted immediately. "Satisfied, or are you going to keep me from my search?"
Rainbow did a double take. "Electric beats flying? What does that even mean? Also, if you were looking for some pony, why didn't you ask some pony before rampaging?"
"Electric beats flying means exactly what it sounds like: electric-type moves being good on flying-type pokemon. Sorry, did you say you would help if asked?" The zebra looked astonished.
"Okay, too many words strung together in a way I don't understand. I'm taking you to Twilight. She lives in the big tree over in that direction, got it?" Rainbow pointed a hoof in a direction. "I'll see you there in a bit."


--------------------------------------


"What are you? I mean, you're a zebra, but you are unlike any zebra, or any pony I know or have heard of, and I have heard of a lot of of ponies. How do you run so fast but maintain that much control over your velocity to turn and stop instantly? How do you have control over lightning and are able to channel it into bolts in whatever direction you like? Why don't you have a cutie mark?" A purple unicorn looked the zebra up and down, teleporting to either side, using her magic to take notes on everything and generally making the zebra wish for personal space. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way. What's your name?"
"Mrs. Sparkle, have you HEARD of personal space?" The zebra glared at her, and she backed off with a sheepish grin. Rainbow Dash collapsed in silent laughter. "To answer your questions, I'm a Blitzle, I have always been able to control my speed but I have never had as much speed as I have here. How I can randomly have a huge speed boost just by being in a new area is far beyond me. All Blitzle, all electric types, and many other Pokemon can use electric type attacks, so for me it really is pretty standard. I have no clue what a cutie mark is, so I can't tell you why I don't have one. And as for my name? It's Blitzle. Pleased to meet you, Twilight."
"Wait wait wait, your name is Blitzle, and you are a Blitzle? I wouldn't want to be called Pegasus, I would prefer my name, Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow looked pleased with herself.
"Hey Mrs. Dash, may I ask you a question?" Blitzle looked at her with a puzzled face.
"Yeah?"
"Exactly what did you mean when you called me a stupid zebra?"
"I... erm, what I mean is... well... just tell Twilight why you're here."
Smirking, Blitzle turned to the unicorn. "I'm looking for my partner. She should be here, but I can't find her anywhere. Can you help?"
Twilight thought for a minute, frowned, and then her horn started to glow. A bunch of books floated over to her and began circling her, one coming out of the circle and to her face at a time. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and no! I don't have a book with a locator spell. I'm sorry Blitzle, but I don't think I can help you. I could ask the others, but I can't make any promises."
"The others?" Blitzle looked on edge and sparked up. "What do you mean by 'the others'?"
"Woah woah woah calm down! She just means our friends!" Rainbow yelled at him. "Geez, don't you have friends?"
"No," Blitzle stated immediatly. "I have my partner, and the Guild. Any questions?"
Twilight looked stunned. "How can you not have any friends? Who is your partner? What does she look like? Who is this guild? How did you get here, as you seem to know you are from somewhere else?"
"Very easily: don't talk to people. My partner is Ponyta, a cream horse with red fire for a mane and tail, a little taller than me. The Wigglytuff Guild, lead by the afformentioned Guild-Master Wigglytuff. And as for how I got here, it's kind of a long story. Perhaps I should start with what I am. Just, promise me you'll explain what you guys are."	
Twilight nodded. "Done."
> The Edge of the Woods
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"...and that about covers ponies. Rainbow flew to speak with Fluttershy about seeing Ponyta, as she might have seen your friend." Twilight finished. "So go talk with her. She might know a thing or two."
Blitzle nodded. "So, where is... uhh... Fluttershy's house?"
"See the forest?" Twilight asked, opening the window. "It's the hut by it. Make sure you go fast once you leave, we don't need any pony getting scared of you."
"Why would anybody - anypony - be scared of me?"
"Some don't make friends as quickly as others, and they didn't take to well initially to the first zebra we had in town..."
"Well, I'm off. Anything else I need to know?"
"Yeah, about Fluttershy. She's really shy, so just be nice, quiet, and make sure you don't surprise her."
Blitzle ran off to Fluttershy's house. Twilight sighed. She hadn't expected anything to happen in Ponyville, at least not of this scale. She figured she's going to need to let the her friends know what's going on, first and foremost the princesses.
"SPIIIIKE! Where are you?" Twilight called out for her assistant.
"Right here!" Spike called back from the stairs. "What do you need?"
"I need you to send a letter to the princesses."


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"House by the forest, you can't miss it.... especially when Rainbow is circling it leaving behind rainbows. Gee, I wonder where Fluttershy lives," Blitzle laughed, slowing down to a visible speed as he arrived by the fence, and spots Rainbow flying randomly through the air. "I'm here, calm down."
"Well it took you long enough. I was starting to worry that you weren't coming," Rainbow said, flying down to talk to him. "She's inside, but be careful. Twilight probably told you she was shy, but she is way shyer than you think. So... yeah. Watch what you do. I gotta move some clouds."
"Well, see you around," Blitzle watched as she flew back to the main part of town. "Time to meet Fluttershy."
Blitzle knocks on the door softly. "Come in. if you want to, that is."
Blitzle took that as his cue to enter. He opened the door and walked inside. Spotting a cream colored, pink-maned pegasus among all the animals, he goes over. "Are you Fluttershy?"
"Um, yes," Fluttershy tried to shrink away from him. "Are you the one Rainbow was talking about?"
"Yeah. I'm Blitzle. Nice to meet you," he said, smiling at her. "Did she ask you about Ponyta?"
"Um, yes. I haven't seen her. I'm really really sorry," she backed away from him, lowering her head to try and hide more. "I really didn't see any pony at all that I didn't recognize near the Everfree."
"Oh well. I didn't think so, but I was hoping," Blitzle said. "If you see a pony with a flame-red mane - or a mane of flames, more likely - could you let me... the Everfree is that forest, right?"
"Yes, why?"
"Is there usually smoke coming out of it?"
"No," Fluttershy walked to the window that Blitzle was staring out of. "Is that a forest fire? OH NO!"
"Calm down! Go get Twilight and Rainbow. Grab a cloud, just in case I'm wrong. I'm going directly to the source."
"In the Everfree? But there are Timberwolves and Cockatrices and Cragadiles in there!" Fluttershy said, sounding scared. "You won't survive without help!"
"If I'm right, that flame is my partner and I am going to go find out for sure. Try to stop me, and I won't hesitate to leave you in the dust. Rainbow probably left out the part where I was as fast as her and had complete control over my direction. Get help."
"If I can't stop you, alright. Be careful though, Rainbow seemed to think that you would be a good pal to have. Oh, don't touch the blue flowers, if you can help it."
"Why?"
"Just... don't do it."


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"He did WHAT?" Twilight exclaimed after Fluttershy told her what had happened. "How could you let him go into the Everfree Forest alone?"
"I didn't want him to, but he demanded that I go get you two," Fluttershy explained. "He threatened to leave me behind if I followed him, and I don't have a chance to keep up!"
"Well, I'm going in after him!" Rainbow declared, and would have flown off if Twilight hadn't grabbed her tail with her magic.
"Don't you dare, Rainbow Dash. He may not know enough to be careful in there, but we do. Spike, ask Applejack to meet us at Fluttershy's house. Ask her to see if Pinkie and Rarity are able to come. Got it?"
Spike was scribbling it down, "...are able to come! Got it!"
"Good. Send it and come with us," Twilight said as she headed to the door. "It should only be a quick in and out to find him, so don't try to get out of it."
"Ugh. Fine," Spike sighed, sending off the letter and heading out after Twilight. "I hope we aren't the ones who are wrong about this..."


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"Well, no more smoke. That means I lost the trail..." Blitzle glanced around. "But then again, the tree cover makes it so that I don't know whether or not there's smoke. Wait, what's that noise?"
A loud crackling noise, followed by some howls. "Something tells me that some dumb wolf thing - maybe a Timberwolf Fluttershy mentioned -  tried to attack my partner.  Good on you, Ponyta. I'm on my way!"
"Back away from me you grass-type wannabees!" A female voice shouted. "Flamethrower!"
Blitzle flash stepped backwards to avoid getting hit by the flames.
"That's my partner. FLAME CHARGE!" Blitzle blasted towards the fire and body-checked a Timberwolf. "Hey flame head, miss me?"
"More than you think," Ponyta said, smiling at her partner. "I would have left the forest a while ago, but these guys keep coming and they gave my new friend a bad bite and slammed it into a tree. I got them off it but he's not moving. I think it's unconscious."
Blitzle glanced by her feet and saw a small, purple, monkey-like figure with a small spot of blue on its back. "A Sableye?" He asked, electrocuting a Timberwolf.
"Yup. Do you mind grabbing him so we can get out of here fast?" Ponyta asked, stepping back from the Dark-Ghost type.
"I got him. Go!" Blitzle grabbed Sableye and flipped it onto his back, but Sableye caught itself and stood up on Blitzle. Sableye turned towards the wolves and the red gem on its chest began to glow. There was a huge flash of light behind Blitzle and Ponyta, who decided to take the opportunity to leave, Sableye in tow.


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The trio arrived at the entrance at about the time that another group arrived there. Twilight rushed forward when she saw that Blitzle was there, and smacked him on the head with her hoof after he grinned. "Blitzle, what were you thinking? Fluttershy warned you about what lives in there!"
"Relax, I'm fine, don't worry," Blitzle laughed, Sableye grinning on his back. "Look, I found Ponyta and another Pokemon, and the Timberwolves stood as much of a chance against our flames as I do of learning how to run on water."
"Well, at least one of us found our bags," Ponyta said, tossing Blitzle's to him. "I found it by me when I arrived in the forest. I'm assuming that these are the ones who helped you while you didn't have me?"
Rainbow flew over. "That would be us. At least, three of us. The others of us haven't met him yet. Or really know anything about him."
Twilight looked at Rainbow and shook her head. "I don't think she was going for confirmation there. Although, she may have been. Regardless, my name is Twilight Sparkle. The loud one is Rainbow Dash,"
"Hey there!"
"The yellow one is Fluttershy."
"Hi."
"And as for the one's Blitzle hasn't met either, the one with the hat is Applejack,"
"Howdy!"
"The other unicorn is Rarity,"
"A pleasure to meet you both."
"The dragon on my back is Spike,"
"Nice to meet you!"
"And then there's Pinkie Pie."
The aforementioned Pinkie Pie dashed right up to them shook their hooves. "HeyHow'sItGoing?"
"Well, these are my friends, could you tell us more about yours?" Twilight asked.
Blitzle nodded happily, and swayed side to side a bit. "This is Ponyta, my partner and the smart one. I'm the tactical one of the group and usually think better on the fly than she does, but she's definitely the smart one. To compare, she's like an Earth Pony who breathes fire and doesn't have a connection to the earth. And this little guy is a Sableye, a dark-ghost type. They're crafty Pokemon, and are often quite agile. They can detect gems to an extent-" Rarity got a small smile at that. "-which is good for them as that's their main food source."
"WHAT?!?!?!" Rarity shouted. "I knew dragons did that - the eating of them, at least - but they are rare, and Spike doesn't eat all that many as they are like candy to him - but that's the main food source?"
Ponyta looked strangely at her. "They don't HAVE to eat it. I know Team Shadow Eye's Sableye doesn't eat gems much, preferring more natural food like berries and vegetables and the like, but yeah. Is that a problem?"
"Oh no, it really isn't," Rarity said quickly, seeing Sableye hang it's head in shame. "It just can't come into my Boutique, that's all."
Sableye heard this and perked up a bit, relieved that it doesn't need to hold off from eating. Pulling a couple of small emerald shards out of nowhere, it popped one into it's mouth and grinned.
"Wait, you carry around gems?" Spike asked, getting a nod as a response. "How many do you have?"
Sableye merely grinned at Spike and stretched its arms out in the classic it-was-this-big pose.
"Does that mean that much, or a really really large amount?" Twilight asked.
Sableye held up two fingers, jumped off of Blitzle, and held out the 3 shards in its hand that were left to Spike, offering them to him. Spike took them, surprised that Sableye was so giving with its gems. "Thank you."
Applejack looked at Sableye. "You don't talk much, do you?"
Sableye shook it's head, walked over to Rarity, and offered her a perfectly cut navy blue sapphire.
"You know I don't eat gems, right?" She asked, making sure she knew that it knew. When it nodded, she took it, also surprised, but at it's self control. "I guess I was a bit overeager with banning you from my Boutique. I'm sorry about that."
Sableye shrugged. The conversations and fun likely would have continued, but Blitzle then collapsed.
"BLITZLE!" Ponyta yelled, despite standing next to him. "Quick, we need to get him to the nearest house!"
"Fluttershy, do you mind?" Twilight asked.
"No, I don't. I think we need to make sure he's okay." She responded.
"Excellent, thank you. Spike, take Sableye and hang out with Rarity, if that's okay with her."
"I do not mind, and if they wouldn't mind lending a hand, that would be most appreciated."
"Great. Ponyta, come on. I'll get him there," Levitating Blitzle up, she runs towards Fluttershy's house. "I hope nothing bad is happening to him."


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Blitzle looked around. "Where am I? What happened?"
What are your ideals?
"Who said that? What's going on?"
> A Nightmare's Invitation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Is my partner okay?"
Ponyta had been pacing all around Fluttershy's home, trying to calm herself down. She had already helped feed the animals, had grabbed the mail, and was freaking out over her partner. Twilight glared.
"If you don't calm down and stop making so much noise, I won't be able to focus enough to try a figure out what happened to him. Honestly, I think he overexerted himself trying to find you. Neither of you noticed, but look at his side; He has quite a few bites and scratches, and it looks like he got nailed square in the side by some of you fire. I think he just needs some rest to recover."
Ponyta shook her head. "I don't think Rest will work. He doesn't know that move, and even if he did he would have made mention of what he was doing."
"Wait, Rest is a move?" Twilight looked suprised. "What does it do, make you go to sleep?"
"That and completely heal you of everything."
"That sounds nice," Fluttershy said. "It really seems useful."
Ponyta laughed. "It is. If Blitzle is really just resting, then we may as well just wait for him. Could you tell me more about this place?"
Twilight smiled. "Blitzle asked the same thing, strangely."


---------------------------------------------------------------------


"I see. So Unicorns are like Psychic or Ghost types, as Ghost types often have Psychic moves. Pegasi are like Flying types, and Earth Ponies are Rock, Ground, or Grass Types, usually. Alicorns are lots of types, and that covers everything, right?" Ponyta tried to keep everything straight in her head. There may be lots of Pokemon, but the types usually have dictation over how they act and what they can do. But cutie marks don't follow that logic at all. They can make a Unicorn have control over fire, or a Pegasus juggle rocks! They made no sense to Ponyta, but a balloon that can pass through objects or a rock snake without any known organs probably wouldn't make sense to the ponies.
As Ponyta was about to tell about some of the stranger moves and abilities, Blitzle started shaking in his sleep, tossing and turning.
"Blitzle? Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, poking him. Suddenly, she was behind Ponyta and Twilight, who were prepared to have to go against the thing coming out of Blitzle.
"What are you, and what are you doing to Blitzle?" Twilight demanded.
The shadowy figure ignored her. There had been black smoke billowing out of Blitzle as it exited him, and the smoke began taking form. Suddenly, they were face to face with Nightmare Moon.
"Nightmare Moon! But... Princess Luna is no longer Nightmare Moon. What's going on?" Twilight sounded terrified, backing away from the evil.
As the mare was about to attack, her form disappeared into smoke, a pitch-black claw slicing through her and causing her to dissipate, the rest of the smoke going away and revealing the figure behind. Not a one knew what it was, but they saw it turn towards Blitzle and raise it's hand as if to strike him.
"Don't even THINK about it!" Ponyta yelled while lunging at it, Twilight blasting magic at it as well. It whirled around, it's now-visible necklaces tinging against themselves, and held out a hand. From it, an inkblot looking blast came from it. Striking Twilight's magic, a pitch black sphere encircled the collision spot, and both were gone. Ponyta was held in the air through a strange power by the creature, who stared at her eye to eyes.
"Back off, I will get to you three afterwards. Wait your turn." The creature spoke in a deep voice. Ponyta was shoved back through the air, and slammed into Twilight. Both tumbled backwards as Fluttershy went up to it.
"How dare you come into my home and act as if you run the place? How dare you attack my friends?" She said, flying up a few feet to see it on the same level. The creature's eye looked over at her, and it turned away.
"Face it Fluttershy. You would be far too easy for me to beat with my power. So don't even try to fight me. The only one currently on this planet who would stand a chance battling me would be Sableye, due to typing alone, and taking my power into account, it would lose. Stand down," It turned back to Blitzle and a black shadow came out of him. The creature absorbed it, and turned back as Blitzle stopped moving. "Was it so hard to wait a few secOOF!"
Ponyta had slammed into it and stood over it. "Return Blitzle's life energy to him!"
The creature laughed. "Life energy? What would I do with his life energy?"
"Feed off it, like you did. Return it immediatly!"
The creature pushed her off. "Ponyta, I wish I could comply with your statement. But I am afraid-"
"Do. It. Now." Ponyta's flames burned higher. "Unless you want a burned backside, of course."
The creature shook it's head. "I didn't take anything he wanted. I used Dream Eater on a nightmare. My fault he had it, so even if I don't try to remove most nightmares I find I would have removed it. Part of why I have necklaces of Lunar Wings, lessens or prevents my power from attacking without cause. Still wish to fight me, Ponyta? How about you, Twilight Sparkle? Or Fluttershy?"
Twilight stepped forward. "I still don't know what you are. Ponyta doesn't seem to know what kind of Pokemon you are. Who are you?"
The creature bowed. "Darkrai, the Pitch Black Pokemon, at your service. I am a Dark type, and my ability is my biggest foe. I have Bad Dreams, consider it an always active use of Nightmare on a Pokemon asleep. The problem is, I cannot control what it attacks so I end up causing nightmares on every being asleep near me. My sister, of sorts, gave me lots of Lunar Wings to help lessen the blow, but only if I am not trying to cause nightmares. If I am, they do not prevent me. Cresselia and I have been trying to make my power more of mine, and not just a power. The 'Nightmare Moon' that you saw was merely spillover dream mist as I emerged from his dream. It locked onto the closest one, and would have attacked had I not destroyed it. Any questions, or may I continue?"
Ponyta tilted her head. "How did you know their names? And what was that blast that intercepted Twilight's magic?"
"That was my signature move, toned down quite a bit. It is known as Dark Void. It puts to sleep all who are hit by it, and usually I fire many more than just one shot. As for how I know who they are, they fit the descriptions given to me by someone I met. I would not have met them, except it seems the magic of this world causes us Pokemon to become capable of more than we can on our own. For example, Blitzle's speed, or my new ability to traverse through sleeping subconscious to travel. As for who I met, I believe you know of a Princess Luna?"
Fluttershy peeked out at it. "What did you mean by 'You would be far too easy for me to beat with my power'?"
Darkrai looked down to her. "I meant that because my power is all about forcing fears, and Her Highness warned me that you were easily spooked. She also wanted to respond to your letter, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight nearly tackled him rushing forwards. "Call me Twilight, and whatdidshesay?"
Darkrai pulled a piece of parchment out and handed it to her. "See for yourself."
Twilight looked at it. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, we do agree that this could pose a problem. However, we will be unable to discuss it for a few days. Please come to Canterlot in three days time, on Tuesday, with your friends and the Pokemon that you mentioned. Darkrai agreed to be a bit of a messenger in case more than the two you mentioned come as well. Please speak with everyone and reply tomorrow night, when Darkrai will be able to return to you. Yours Truly, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." Twilight looked up at him. "Two things, did you really agree and what do they mean tomorrow night?"
Darkrai floated to the door. "I was not as willing as it sounds, but I agreed to do so, yes. I was not expected to arrive until tonight, so that three should be a four. I am aware of Sableye, he was in Blitzle's dream," Blitzle started to wake up. "As for today, I believe Blitzle has voted that I stay until nightfall. Besides, I would like to meet this Pinkie Pie I was told about. Celestia was very pushy about me meeting her, and I cannot fathom why. Any objections to me hanging around town for the day?"
Fluttershy went over to him. "I think you should stay. You seem so sad. Pinkie can cheer you up, I'm sure of it."
Ponyta and Twilight raised no objections, but Ponyta asked what about the pink mare would make Darkrai happier, "unless he's going to laugh at her mane or something."
Twilight smiled. "Pinkie's whole world revolves around making ponies laugh and throwing parties. She should be able to do it with ease."
Blitzle wandered over, still half asleep. "So that Darkrai thing packs a wallop, doesn't it?"
Ponyta laughed. "Most definatly so," She, Blitzle, and Twilight watched as Fluttershy led Darkrai towards town. "I hope everything is going to be okay... Wait, today is Friday?"
Twilight turned to her. "Yes, why?"
Blitzle's eyes widened. "The campfire!"
Twilight had to run at top speed to keep up with the pair of them. "What campfire? What's going on?"
Blitzle stopped, turned and said, "just make sure that you can convince some of the town to come out by the library for the campfire, okay?"
"What campfire?" Twilight was getting annoyed.
Blitzle gave a small smirk. "You'll just have to find out. Trust me, you guys will love it." He sped off, leaving the librarean to wonder why they thought that a fire near a library in a tree is a good idea, and how it could be safe.
> Ain't No Rest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Blitzle and Ponyta raced down Fluttershy's path and towards the library, Blitzle leading Ponyta. Twilight teleported there to meet them.
"... and I'll head back and see if I can grab enough wood from downed trees. if need be, I can snipe a few branches down. Try to take some pony with you, I don't think you can easily carry enough rocks and bricks to make it worthwhile. I'll try to get Sableye to help me, and wait-a-sec. Darkrai needs to be included in this. He should be with Fluttershy or Pinkie, I think he would be more than willing to lend a hand. Got it Ponyta?" Twilight heard Blitzle say.
"Got it! What about the food?" Ponyta responded, picking up twigs and branches from around the library.
"We'll worry about that later. Remember, that's the least of the Campfire. As Wigglytuff said, 'It's not about the food, its about the friends!', as you recall."
"Of course I remember. See if Spike is with Sableye, maybe he could help me out."
"HEY!" Twilight yelled, and she got their attention. "what are you talking about for a campfire?"
Ponyta turned to Blitzle. "Grab the wood. I'll explain." Blitzle left a trail of black and white zig-zag behind him as he headed back to the Everfree. "Okay, the campfire was this weekly thing that a bunch of teams did. They were the teams in or affiliated with the guild that don't live with the guild anymore. They did this as a way of getting together again and trading stories. It was also a way of trading around missions and jobs that had been given but were too difficult, or required abilities that a team didn't have. They met at Sharpedo Bluff and had dinner, traded stories, and had fun. wigglytuff found them one time, and was furious. They were having a get together about the guild and they hadn't let him know! He asked if he could expand it for the whole town to be a way of bringing everyone together, and the teams all agreed that it would be fun, but Team Charm, suprisingly, vetoed it unless one condition is fulfilled; that the campfire is run by the teams who had been doing it. Wigglytuff, always wanting to help bring everyone together, agreed but asked that they let everyone in town help prepare with stories, songs, food, and drinks. We've been doing these campfires for almost as long as I've known Blitzle and we've been a team. it helps make new teams more well known, spread some tougher missions or dungeons to another team or group of teams. Heck, it even managed to get them to be civil for once... anyway, it's Friday and we need a way to formally introduce us to the town, so that's the plan. Even if no pony else comes, we can at least have it ourselves."
Twilight looked dumbstruck. "Why didn't you ask for help? I'm sure lots of ponies in town would like to come and to help out in any way that they can."
Ponyta was delighted. "Any and all help is appreciated. Let's get started."


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Blitzle was surprised at how many ponies came out to help. Darkrai had managed to be trusted despite looking like a monster to fear, and was helping Blitzle with Cut and Psychic. Several ponies were carrying the fire wood, others were getting all the rocks needed, others were making food. Darkrai, whenever it was at the in-progress fire pit, adjusted rocks so that damage to the ground beneath by fire was minimal. Finally, everything was ready. There was food, there were drinks, every pony had gathered by the fire. 
Ponyta spoke up. "Thank you all for coming. I wasn't sure any pony would trust us or feel we were safe enough to be around, with my flame, his electricity and attitude -"
"Hey!"
"- and Darkrai feeling like he looks like a nightmare, but Twilight must have done something really big for you all to trust her like that. Speaking of hat she could have done, who would like to start with a story, or a song, or something of that nature?"
A voice in the tenor range called out. "Now hold on just a second, flame head. I think we will have a start."
Blitzle stood and began sparking. "You."
"Me. Gotta problem with that, Stripes?"
Blitzle looked around for the source of the voice. "Actually, yeah. Last time we met, you attacked my team from behind. We only barely drove you off."
Twiliht looked around. "Blitzle, what's going on? Who is it?"
Blitzle looked at her. "That, my friend, is -"
"Now how about I introduce myself, thank you very much," every pony turns and opens a path for the speaker. A large, purple skunk strolls up through the crowd, a floating purple ball and a blue bat just behind him. "Skuntank, leader of Team Skull, at your service. The bat is Zubat, and the ball is Koffing. Any questions?"
Ponyta stood. "When can you leave?"
Skuntank laughed. "Chaw-haw-haw! Is this how you treat those who ain't coming to do anything wrong? We saw the campfire, we came over."
Blitzle stared them down before sitting. "Fine. I beleive you. Keep in mind that we have a legendary in attendance whom I hope won't let you do anything that goes too far."
Darkrai nodded. "Unless you do, I won't do a thing. You said you had a thing to start with?"
Skuntank nodded, a smile creeping up. "It's my favorite song."


I was walkin' down the road
When out the corner of my eye
I saw a pretty little thing approaching me
She said "I never seen a man
Who looked so all alone
Oh could you use a little company?

And if you pay the right price
Your evening will be nice
And you can go a send me on my way"
I said, "You're such a sweet young thing
why you do this to yourself?"
She looked at me and this is what she said



Koffing and Zubat joined in for the chorus



Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
I got bills to pay
I got mouths to feed
And ain't nothing in this world for free
No I can't slow down
I can't hold back
Though you know I wish I could
No there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good


Twilight looked at Ponyta. "Why does he like it? I mean, it isn't a bad song, but I've heard better."
Ponyta looked at her. "The chorus, mostly. We got this song from a Flygon, said he got it from a faraway land. Don't know what most of this means, I think."


Not even 15 minutes later
I'm still walkin' down the street
When I saw the shadow of a man creep out of sight
And then he swept up from behind
He put a gun up to my head
He made it clear he wasn't lookin' for a fight

He said give me all you got
I want your money not your life
But if you try to make a move I won't think twice
I told him you can have my cash
But first you know I gotta ask
What made you wanna live this kind of life?
He said

Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
I got bills to pay
I got mouths to feed
And ain't nothing in this world for free
No I can't slow down
I can't hold back
Though you know I wish I could
No there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good



Well now a couple hours passed
And I was sitting in my house
The day was winding down and coming to an end
So I turned to the TV
And flipped it over to the news
And what I saw I almost couldn't comprehend

I saw a preacher man in cuffs
He'd taken money from the church
He'd stuff his bank account with righteous dollar bills
But even still I can't say much
Because I know we're all the same
Oh yes we all seek out to satisfy those thrills



Everypony joined in for the chorus, even those who didn't know the song.



You know there ain't no rest for the wicked
Money don't grow on trees
We got bills to pay
We got mouths to feed
And ain't nothing in this world for free
No we can't slow down
We can't hold back
Though you know we wish we could
No there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good


There was a pause after the music faded, which had come in so subtly that no one had noticed it until it had really been in full swing. Skuntank's voice roared up. "Now THAT'S how you start a campfire!"
"I still don't see why you didn't try to pick a fight with us after last campfire," Blitzle said. "After all, I admitted that I planned all those pranks on you."
Skuntank laughed again. "Chaw-haw-haw! You think we don't know a losing battle when we see it? Besides, if we're on another world, as we think we are, we can't be the bad guys if we want to get home. Not necisarily the good guys, mind you, but for now we ain't gonna do anything. Lay the first punch, though, and let's just say our noxious gas combo is a bit more powerful here, among other things."
Darkrai spoke up then. "He isn't your enemy. His team may be greedy and selfish, bullies and cheats, but he is not really antagonistic. Nothing they have ever done meanly has been irreversible. If they hide something, it's in a place a rescue team can go get it, and they outriht state where they hid it. They may watch out for their own behinds, but they are not to be underestimated. They are a very strong team when able to get a start."
Spike suddenly belched up a letter, nearly hitting Sableye with it. "Hey Darkrai, it has your name on it."
Darkrai opened it and read it. "Hmm. I am afraid I must leave early on. A shame, the campfire was fun while it lasted. I look forward to interacting with you all more in the future." Darkrai melted into the shadows and left.
Wasting no time, Blitzle removes the momentary silence. "So, who's got a story to tell?"
> Only the Beginning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In Canterlot Castle, two sisters were discussing something of importance.
"Luna, you are sure you have seen nothing during the night?" Celestia asked.
"Yes my sister. I have seen nothing, and Darkrai may be able to confirm when he arrives." Luna listened intently for any sign of her fellow dream walker. There was noise outside the throne room, and both turned to the doors.
"No monster will be allowed through, especially carrying an unconscious pony with them." A guard outside said with force.
"Allow me through or I will have to force my way through. I have a matter of utmost importance of which to speak with the princesses." A deep male voice warned. "They are expecting me. If you do not believe me, tell them Darkrai has arrived."
Celestia opened the door. Darkrai, looking thoroughly beaten around, was carrying a filly. She was an Earth pony, grey mane and dark blue body, and had no cutie mark yet. She had a Lunar Wing around her neck, and Darkrai had all of his visible. "Darkrai, what happened? Come in, quickly."
Darkrai floated in the throne room and floated to the ground and sat, groaning. "She's stuck in a nightmare. I cannot break it or feed from it. It is uncontrollable even to me, who shapes and controls nightmares. The lunar wings have no effect, and her nightmare fights back. I only barely escaped. I apologize for making you stay up to wait for me, princesses, but the dream drew my concern. I fear she had been attacked and the nightmare is ingrained too far in her head. I improvised to the parents, saying I was a disciple of you," He said, indicating Luna. "They bought it. I tried everything I could, but told them I would need to take her directly to you, and promised I would let them know of any changes to her condition, and promised that she would make it through. The Lunar Wing helped her condition, but I cannot do more in this condition. I must request that you do not go into the dream without me, Luna."
Luna looked at him like he said he punched Celestia. "And what, specifically, would make you think I cannot handle myself in my own domain?"
Darkrai laughed. "Your domain? My dear Alicorn, your domain is dreams. Nightmares are not just my domain, I am the god and master of them. I highly doubt that if I was this beaten by my own domain you could do anything without my help. At this point is when I would call in MY sister, who cancels out nightmares and bad dreams just by being there. if you are so sure about going in, however..."
Celestia stepped forward. "What are you going to do? I must insist that you let us in on the plan before you make a possible mistake."
Darkrai looked at her and nodded. "Fair enough. My plan is to use Dream Eater on her, hopefully removing the nightmare but that is unlikely. Dream Eater will recover my health more effectively than some of my other move due to what I am. Then, I will go with your sister into this filly's dreams and fight whatever is in there. I already tried diplomacy, and that thing attacked. It looked like a Raichu, but pure yellow with glowing red eyes. It was larger and much stronger than it should be. Nothing I did to it did more than if I threw a rock at one of you. I think that more Pokemon are coming than just the seven I am aware of."
Luna looked astonished. "Seven? I thought there were three, you and the two we were informed of."
Darkrai chuckled. "Heh. There are more than that know, and likely more than seven at this point. There's Blitzle, Ponyta, and I, but there's a clever Pokemon called Sableye, and the members of Team Skull, the bat, known as Zubat, the ball of assorted gasses, a Koffing, and the big guy in charge of the two, Skuntank. This filly's dream provides proof of a Raichu sighting, and a violent one at that. Enough about my problem. You asked me to come as quick as I can?"
Celestia yawned. "Yes. We received a letter that we do not feel is good news in any way."
Luna turned to her. "Please sister, go to bed. We will discuss what is going on."
Celestia nodded and turned to leave. At the door, she stopped and turned towards Darkrai. "You should recover yourself as quick as you can." Celestia left, leaving Darkrai to wonder if she knew more about what was going on than she let on.
"Here it is." Luna levitated it to Darkrai, who looked at it.
" 'Dear citizens of the city, surrender the city or be driven out by the Thunderclaps. You have until Tuesday morning to make your desicion.' " Darkrai groweled a bit. " 'Soon-to-be owner of this place, Raichu.'  What a good-for-nothing electric rodent!"
Luna shook her head. "There's more."
" 'P.S. That child was a warm up act for what we can really do.' THAT LITTLE PIECE OF TRUBBISH!" Darkrai roared. "I'll tear him to pieces personally!"
Luna put her hoof on his shoulder before he could get up. "Don't you dare. If you're this tired, recover your energy and wait. We did not know what that last part meant until you arrived."
Darkrai sighed. "You are correct. I need to rest. Speaking of... Rest." Darkrai fell asleep, and Luna watched as any indication of having fought disappeared. After about 5 minutes, Darkrai woke up. "Much better."
Luna hid her surprise. "Good. We must enter the dreams. I, unlike you, only send my consciousness into dreams. Are you ready?"
Darkrai put a Lunar Wing around her neck. "Just in case. Ready."
The pair of dream walkers entered the dreams of a young filly, prepared to do whatever they can to wake her up.


---------------------------------------------------


"Dear Twilight, we must request that you and your friends come as soon as you can. Please send a letter back telling when you are coming. Sincerely, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." Twilight read the letter quickly. "Something must have happened. Spike, ask Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy to come here. Sableye should be with Rarity, so get it to come too."
"Her." Spike responded.
"Her? Her who?"
"Sableye. She has a female voice, and Rarity confirmed it at the campfire after Sableye had been singing. We were suprised. We thought she was male."
"Oh. Well, get her to come, then. Blitzle is with Rainbow to see if he can help with weather, so they should be together. Ponyta is who-knows-where, and Applejack should be at Sweet Apple Acres, so I'll try to find them. Ask every pony to come as soon as possible."


---------------------------------------------------


Blitzle watched Rainbow push clouds around. "Alright, doesn't seem too hard. Honestly seems like what Plusle and Minun do, for the most part. The difference being they use their electrical magnetism to pull the clouds rather than push it, and in order to get the Minun on the cloud they need a flying type to help."
"Well, as much as I don't know either of those Pokemon, I am not carrying you onto a cloud." Rainbow laughed. "So unless you can grow wings, I think you aren't going to be able to help the weather team."
"I didn't mean carry me. I meant that if I do this right, I can use positively charged electricity to drag the cloud around." Blitzle sparked up, and shot a bolt at a cloud, and the bolt stays and becomes like a rope. "Unless this is against regulation, I think that I am going to be able to help the weather team."
Rainbow would have made one of her usual snarky remarks, but she saw Twilight running over. "Heya Twilight. Whatcha need?"
Twilight stopped running, and paused to catch her breath for a second. "Both of you, to the library. We need to discuss something. Also, do either of you know where Ponyta is?"
Rainbow shrugged. "I think she said that she was going with Koffing and Zubat to the Everfree."
Twilight nodded. "I'll be on the lookout for her, then. Wait for me in the library, got it?"


---------------------------------------------------


Back at the library, Twilight is pacing back and forth worriedly, Blitzle, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Sableye watched her in a mix of mild amusement, serious concern, and large boredom. "Koffing and Zubat said Spike had Ponyta, but neither can be found. Where are they?"
"Relax. They probably got sidetracked by Pinkie or something." Blitzle remarked, noticing Sableye climb onto his back. "What, am I that comfortable? Why always me?"
Sableye knocked on the back of his neck and leaned her back against it and began reading a book.
Blitzle sighed. "I guess I have a good neck. Oh, I think they're here.""
"How could you POSSIBLY know if they're here, Blitzle?" Rarity asked.
"I heard what sounded like her move B-" There were knocks on the door. "Here they are now, Delcatty."
"Delcatty? DELCATTY?" Rarity yelled as Applejack opened the door and Pinkie, Spike and Ponyta came in. "Erm, what's a Delcatty?"
Ponyta glared at Blitzle. Not for anything in particular, but she had a feeling Blitzle had done something to prompt a question about an unmentioned Pokemon. "It is a Normal-type cat. Xatu mentioned it is also known as the Prim Pokemon. It hates dirt and constantly grooms itself."
"Just like a mostly white, purple mane and tail Pony. Hey, they even look alike." Blitzle smirked. "Am I wrong?"
For all his efforts, Ponyta glared at him again, Applejack laughed, and Rarity got Sableye to smack him upside the head.
"If you're all finished, we have a problem." Twilight said, getting between Rarity and a sparking Blitzle. "The princesses asked that we arrive as soon as possible, as something came up. Does any pony have anything they need to do before we pack and go?"
"Sableye here was helping finish a few designs." Rarity said. "Although, I can bring them, and if it really is such a big deal that we come quickly."
"Excellent. Anything else? Applejack, what about Sweet Apple Acres? There's almost always a little more work there."
Applejack shook her head. "Just finished planting seeds for the season."
Twilight sighed with relief. "Great. Anything else? No? Good. Let's meet at the train station in an hour."
Right before every pony headed off to grab whatever bags they would need, there was some knocking at the door. Outside was Skuntank, and he looked a little worried. "Yo. There's, uh, something that you may want to see. As in, right now." He turned and ran off in a direction. After a moment's hesitation, they followed.
"I don't know about you, but I think that the princesses aren't the only one's who have a little trouble on their hooves..." Blitzle remarked, staring at the tent and grate that had appeared by Ponyville.
"What is that?" Fluttershy asked. "What's that face on that tent?"
Ponyta whinnied nervously. "This... is the home of the Wigglytuff Guild."
> Smiles for Miles and the Perfect Apple
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Blitzle walked forward carefully. "Here goes nothing..." He said as he put a hoof on the grate.
A small voice called out. "Blitzle! Wait, BLITZLE?"
Ponyta put her hoof on the grate. "It's Diglett!"
The voice responded to the hoof. "Ponyta too? Guys, it's the Trailblazers! They're here!" A multitude of voices called out, but there were far fewer than the whole guild. Diglett popped out. "Ponyta and Blitzle! ...And Team Skull? ...And lots of unknown individuals... EEP!" Diglett went right back underground. "Put foot on grate. One at a time, please, so I can learn who you are. Please? As in, now?"
Blitzle looked at the ponies and dragon. "He means you guys. I would put an apendage down, if you don't he can get mad."
Twilight shrugged. "I mean, if it makes him feel better." She goes and stands on the grate.
"Okay! Now, uh... Who are you? I need a name to the feet. Or is it hooves? I don't know you."
"Hooves, and my name is Twilight Sparkle." She looked down the grate, and couldn't see anything down there. "How can you see?"
"My eyes are good in dark areas. Next please!" Diglett called up.


-------------------------------------------------------------


Blitzle led the group, including Team Skull, down the ladder. "This is the guild. It's where most of our friends li-"
He had been interrupted by a small brown beaver tackling him in a hug. "Blitzle! We've been so worried! Even Chatot was worried about you guys!"
Blitzle laughed. "Calm down Bidoof. Chatot won't admit he was worried, he will say he was unsure of what to do with the knowledge that a team had disappeared or something like that."
Chatot hopped forward. "Actually, I was worried about you guys. I don't worry about anything else, because I know our teams will come  through. But when our teams start vanishing from everywhere we can look, I worry about the likelihood of them being okay or of them being found. Now I worry about seeing the rest of the guild. We've got us four, you two, that Sableye, those seven, and Team Skull. Why do we have Team Skull?"
Ponyta stepped forward to him. "They're with us for now. After we return, maybe not as much, but they promised to help while we're here."
Koffing spoke up from the back. "Honest, we won't do anything."
Twilight had a confused expression on her face. "You said four for who come with you. Diglett, Bidoof, and you. What forth Pokemon?"
Chatot sighed. "Team Charm was visiting, and they were about to head out to go look for you two in the harder dungeons. But then we just sorta disappeared and came here, but Team Charm was split, with Lopunny coming with us."
Ponyta froze. "Lopunny of Team Charm is here? And she was looking for us? WHAT?"
Blitzle sighed. "Look, I know you love Team Charm and idolize them, but she was dragged here without her team. She's probably either mad or sad and likely doesn't want to be disturbed."
Chatot waved the thought away. "Luckily we got food brought alongside us, but there is a huge problem, and we need to find a way to fix it."
Bidoof shuddered. "Are any of you good with apples and growing them? As in really really really good? We only have one Perfect Apple, and it's the core of the one Wigglytuff had finished right before we came here."
Applejack laughed. "Y'all came to the right place for apples."
Diglett's voice rang out. "Lopunny!"
Everyone turned to the ladder as a brown rabbit came down the ladder. "I've got lots of twigs and dead grass in case any more of us come or we find those Trailblazers, I found a huge apple farm and figured we could ask them for some help with food and our Perfect Apple deficit. I was attacked by a couple of strange grass type hounds but they ran off after I used Fire Punch." Lopunny arrived at the bottom of the ladder. She looked at the large group in front of the way in. "Well, I was right that there would be others. Excuse me." She slipped past them with her bundle of stuff she was carrying.
Bidoof called after her. "Wait! You... just went past the Trailblazers!"
"I'll get excited over the coincidence when I'm not carrying bedding." She called back, hopping down the hall.
Everyone was rather confused at what just happened, and when Lopunny came back Applejack was the first to speak. "When were you at my farm?"
Lopunny thought. "Oh, about 20 minutes ago. I was there before I went into the forest. Oh hey, the Trailblazers are here. Who are you four Pokemon, and you seven... not Pokemon?
"Sableye's with us." Blitzle said. "The three poison types are Team Skull, and these seven are denizens of this planet."


-------------------------------------------------------------


There were many introductions and discussions, but eventually Twilight, her friends, and the Trailblazers left to grab their stuff for the train ride to Canterlot.
"Hopefully nothing goes wrong at Canterlot. We're the diplomats, we can't cause a disaster." Ponyta worried.
"Relax, everything will be fine." Blitzle said. "I just want to know what could have caused them to want us sooner than planned."
For once, Sableye spoke. "Whatever it is, Darkrai can handle it, especially with us helping him out." She sounded like a little girl, but she spoke with the conviction of someone who knows everything.
Twilight smiled. She was glad that every pony was in good spirits. They were on the train with Canterlot in sight. Nothing could go wrong here. At least, that's what she thought before the train car behind them exploded, taking half of their car with it.
> Thunderbolts and Lightning, Very Very Frightning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Who would attack the train? it doesn't make sense!" Twilight shouted, using her magic to close the door behind her. All 10 riders went to the next car in, and were not pleased with the attack.
"Especially in broad daylight. It isn't as dramatic." Pinkie pointed out.
Blizle sparked up. "Ponyta, head into the engine and flare it up. We need the speed. Fluttershy, make sure every pony gets into the farthest car up. Sableye, hold on." When she climbed on, he opened the door back to the previous car and runs out of it, leaping out of the train and running next to it. "Sableye, you're my spare eyes. Tell me what you see behind me. Especially attacks or other Pokemon."
Rarity opened a window and stuck her head out. "I know you want to have a look around, but that's insane. Why don't you just come back into the train and not put yourself and Sableye in more danger?"
"Because, mi amiga, he's had a death wish for three and a half years," A male voice said. "If you and your friends don't have such, blast him away with magic."
Rarity gasped and ducked back into the car. Blitzle saw a sight he was hoping never to see again: a Raichu that was larger than normal, and was wearing a hat similar to Applejack's. "You little- Go back to your gang and leave us alone."
Raichu looked amused by the prospect. "And give up? Not a chance, runt. Here, I'm more powerful than before, and my accuracy has skyrocketed. As a demonstration... THUNDER!" Raichu launched a large bolt of electricity up, which then came down farther up the train, severing the cars from the engine.
"NO!" Sableye yelled. They had been mere feet from crossing into Canterlot through the barrier, but the explosion halted their progress. She knew that Blitzle could get to the barrier, and she could dig there if needed, but the others were stuck in the train.
"You slimy piece of Grimer! I'll knock you out for that!" Blitzle said. "Sableye, go to the others. I'll handle the rat."
"Oh no, Speed. You and your friends aren't going anywhere." A deeper voice said from behind. "You're all going to surrender or be destroyed."
Blitzle turned. "Great. You brought the inner circle with you. Electivire, Eelektross, and Lanturn."
Raichu laughed. "That's not all. Galvantula and the Joltik have already infiltrated the train to apprehend your friends. Any second now, there will be an web of-" He stopped when the train car he was on shook and the side blasted open, revealing Ponyta having sent a blast of fire that sent all the spiders through the wall.
"Not. On. My. Watch." Ponyta said. "Hey guys, we got help coming."
Blitle ran over to the train car and jumped in. "Help or no help, we need to get through that barrier somehow. I don't think us three Pokemon can hold them back for more than a short while, so I hope help comes fast or you guys learn to fight."
"Don't let any of them leave that car!" Roared Raichu, leaping down to his fellow electric types.
"GO AWAY!" A wave of pure darkness sweeps across the area from Canterlot's direction. "DARK PULSE!"
"Oh dear. This is dangerous. We should go now." Fluttershy said, hiding behind Applejack. Suddenly, the whole train car was lifted up, causing every pony to fall.
"Nice going Twilight! They can't get us if you put in the barrier!" Applejack said.
"I'm not the one doing this." Twilight said, sounding nervous. "I don't know what is."
"Whatever it is, it has lots of magic. Look!" Rainbow said, pointing through the window. Upon looking through it, the group saw that all of the train cars were floating along with them. They passed through the barrier around the city and the cars were put on the track carefully. They saw an Alakazam standing there.
"Did you all make it?" A surprisingly high-pitched voice asked.
"Yeah, thank you Alakazam." Ponyta said.
"Alakazam? Oh, I'm an Alakazam right now, am I? Hmm, not a bad choice, self. I'd better go help Darkrai now." Alakazam turned pure white and changed shape. It became bigger, rounder, and began to float. When the color returned, Alakazam had transformed into Claydol.
"Ground beats electric. Have at thee, cowards!" Claydol floated through the barrier and used Earthquake.
One look at the senario told Raichu everything. "Fall back! The whole gang will be back on Tuesday, and we will win the fight, legends or no legends." The electric types scattered, and Darkrai floated back into the barrier with Claydol.
"Mew, replenish your shields and head to the castle." Darkrai said. "I'll get them there."
"That's the plan! See you in a bit!" Claydol transformed into the legendary Mew, and began using protective moves. "Barrier. Reflect. Safeguard. Protect. King's Shield. Spiky Shield..."
"Come with me, all of you. I assume you can guess the reason that your meeting was made early?" Darkrai asked, leading the group through the city and netting some very strange looks. Noticing them, he sighed. "First time I've been out of the castle in public in my true form rather than as a shadow, and every single one of them is scared of me, I can sense it, I will be in their nightmares for a while. I recall being asked why I isolate myself while at the campfire. It is because where I'm known I am hated and feared, and where I'm not I am feared nonetheless."
"I don't hate you or think you're scary, Mr. Darkrai." Fluttershy said. "You look kind of scary, but you're really nice."
"Thank you for your words. Your princesses are in the throne room, waiting for your arrival. Tell them I will be there soon. I have one to check on." Darkrai said, melting into shadow and disappearing into the castle.


-----------------------------------------------------


Darkrai floated to a bedroom in the castle, where the previously nightmare consumed Earth Pony was staying until she was all better.
"How are feeling?" Darkrai asked the young filly.
"Much better. Thanks for getting rid of that mouse thing." She rubbed her mane, straightening it out.
"Good. Finish your Oran juice, it will make you feel better. How's your roommate?" Darkrai motioned towards the other bed.
"He hasn't moved since you brought him here. Are you sure he's alright?" She asked.
Darkrai chuckled. "He just needs time to recover, that's all. I'm glad you're alright."
"Who is he, anyway?" She asked. "I've never seen a pony like him before."
"No, I suppose you haven't." Dakrai mused, floating towards the door. "From what I understand, he is the best guard any being could hope for, and the greatest friend to have. Let me know when you're feeling all better, and I'll take you home. If he wakes up, don't let him leave. Tell him Mew will be with him when he is awake."
> The Shield and the Sword
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight led her friends to the throne room. When a threat by a previously unmet electric type obviously shook Darkrai more than it admitted, she could tell that something was going on, more than what they had been told. The way that Blitzle and Raichu interacted bothered her more than whatever Darkrai had against it. As they approached the throne room, the pink cat-like creature that Darkrai called Mew floated up to them.
"Hey there! What's got you feeling down, Sparkles?" It sat on Twilight's back and began eating an apple. "You're all okay! There's no need to feel sad."
"First, don't call me 'Sparkles', that isn't my name." Twilight started. "How did you get so close to it? There's no way you could have heard my name."
"I'm the most psychically powerful Pokemon. In short, I can read minds, and float, and transform, and use telekinesis, and warp reality around me, etc. Also, I talked to your princesses and saw some stained glass windows." Mew scratched its foot. "But I try not to pry into the privacy of minds. So I ask again, why are you so sad, Twilight?"
"Well, that Raichu seemed to put Darkrai in a more violent mood than I've seen him be, and Blitzle and Raichu seemed to want to fight each other." Twilight started shouting. "Which means that they know each other! So Blitzle better explain how he knows the leader of a gang so well!"
Mew considered this. "Calm down. He'll have time to explain, if he wants to, when you reach the throne room. Hey look, we're here!" Mew floated off of Twilight. "But seriously, cool it or I'll call you Rapidash."
Ponyta wasn't amused. "Is that some kind of joke at my expense?"
Mew transformed into a Gastly and stuck out its tongue. "No. Both have horns and hot heads, in one form or another." Mew floated through the door, which opened a second later, revealing the two princesses, Mew (having transformed back), and Darkrai rising through the floor.
Having come face to face with four god-like beings, all six ponies, Spike, Sableye, and Ponyta bowed. Blitzle, however, did not.
"Blitzle, bow!" Twilight told him.
Blitzle scoffed. "No. I refuse."
Twilight glared. "You have two legendary Pokemon, as you call them, and two of our princesses! It's polite!"
Ponyta sighed. "Here we go. Twilight, please drop it."
Mew giggled. "It's okay, Twilight. I can't have my fun if you bow."
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Mew, what do you mean by your fun?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just I can't play with someone who is bowing. That's no fun." Mew said, playing with a yo-yo. "Blitzle and his issues with authority are his to have and not ours to care about. What we should know is anything there is to know about the Thunderclaps. Blitzle, as a fellow electric type, would you know anything about them?"
Blitzle chuckled. "Oh, I know them all right. they have a little over a hundred member, they terrorize rescue and explorer teams, are big-time criminals, and all but one member is an electric type or part-electric type. The non-electric is a Smeargle, and it has a huge variety of moves. Raichu is the leader and is very powerful, and he has this group called his inner circle, consisting of Electivire, Eelektross, Lanturn, Galvantula, which we saw, but also a Magnezone, Ampharos, Manectric, Luxray, and Heliolisk. The other members are pre-evolutions of these, or occasionally weaker pokemon of the same species. I was the only Blitzle or Zebstrika in his gang, and the only not fully evolved pokemon in the inner circle before I left. A few days after that I saved Ponyta from a couple of crabby Krabby, and we made our Rescue Team."
The only ones who didn't react hugely were the Pokemon and the princesses. Ponyta even nodded a bit. "I guess that explains a few things."
Blitzle looked at her as if she just breathed ice instead of fire. "So you don't hate me fore being a criminal?"
Ponyta laughed. "Hate you? Why would I do that? We're a team now, and it explains why you're hesitant about going to mystery dungeons with electric types as very common and why you don't talk about your past." She pushes his shoulder with her hoof. "What we need to do now is train so we can fight them."
Concerned, Luna spoke. "I would warn you. Mew seems to believe that due to the magic that Equestria contains, Pokemon here have a boost in a skill of theirs, effectively having invisible cutie marks of their own. Darkrai has provided evidence that this is occuring, citing his ability to dream walk, Blitzle's greatly enhanced speed, and Sableye's ability to just know where gems and similar materials are as proof that this is occurring. It must be considered that this has happened with these Pokemon as well."
Darkrai considered this. "In that case, I would consider bringing the entire Wigglytuff Guild that is here to Canterlot to be able to help defeat these criminals. I would also consider getting some of the royal guard, if they are willing, to help. But no one else."
"What? NO!" Twilight shouted, startling all present. "I'm going to help! They went too far, and I will not let them continue to do as they please. They have lots of Pokemon that could easily take out members of the guard, but I don't think they can stand up too well against my magic."
"You making such a choice implies that I will allow such an option, Twilight Sparkle. I give you no such option, and I give none of you such an option." Darkrai said, floating towards them. "I will not allow untrained citizens to risk themselves. However, if you are persistent on your wish to fight, then follow me. Princesses, I will go to the field for training if you need me."
"Mew, could you go with them? I have a bad feeling about how tempers may rise." Celestia requested.
"Gotcha! I'll let the guard know of the fight they could join and get them to the field to train as well."


-------------------------------------------


Darkrai led the group to a training field. Several of them sit on the side, but Darkrai goes to one end of the field and turns to face Twilight, Ponyta, Rainbow, Sableye, Spike, and Blitzle. "Twilight only. The rest of you to the sidelines." Confused, they go to the sidelines. "I can confirm the fighting ability of the Pokemon. But for those of you who are not Pokemon, you must fight me in a battle. Either beat me or impress me for me to allow you to fight. I do not want any of you to go into the fight if you cannot hold up."
Twilight sighed. "If this is the only way to convince you I can take care of myself, then fine." She fires a bolt of magic that Darkrai dodges, and responds with Dark Pulse. This attack hits Twilight in the side, and knocks her back. She gets up and avoids the next pulse while returning her own attacks, hitting Darkrai hard.
As they fight, Mew comes over with the members of the guard who will fight the gang. "See? Darkrai is easily keeping his advantage. He's using his superior  agility and ability to predict how a battle goes to keep Twilight from really fighting back!" Mew is far more amused than concerned. After all, the battle is amusing and Twilight is learning how Darkrai's attacks work, which allow her to counter or dodge them. Darkrai, however holds his advantage, and pulls no punches.
As the battle dies down, Darkrai is the definitive winner but doesn't stop his attacks. As he launches his Dark Void, it is met with a shield. "Now you're going too far, Darkrai." Shining Armor walks onto the field. "I push the guard pretty hard when training, but this is too much."
"You don't know what you are getting in the middle of." Darkrai warned, using Shadow Ball to break the shield, which was replaced as quickly as it was destroyed. "The battle needs its conclusion."
"Here's a conclusion: back off!" Shining shot a bolt of magic at Darkrai to force him back.
"Your first mistake was disagreeing with a legendary. Your second was assuming that your attack would hit." A male voice made Shining turn around and immediately put up a shield in front of him. Sword met shield and a beige unicorn with red mane and blue tail came into focus, the sword being his horn. "Your third was that training was over after one fight. I need to keep up my skills or they'll be disappointed, and you can block what I do. I'm going to see just how to win!"
"Keldeo, you were supposed to wait for Mew." Darkrai said, floating over to where Twilight's friends were.
"Next time convince me with more than a little girl." Keldeo stepped back from Shining's shield. He studied it, then lunged forward. "Sacred Sword!" His sword extended, becoming flatter and longer. With a single slice, he shattered the shield, knocking Shining back.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you helping him?" Shining asked, getting back up.
"He doesn't mean to hurt anyone too badly, and he's healing up the purple one." Keldeo reasoned, scratching his head with his hoof, revealing a hole in the bottom of it. "That was fun. Who's next?"
Darkrai sighed. "I believe that I was wrong about how to do this. Perhaps what we need is just hat Keldeo said: training, as opposed to only fighting. Pokemon, grab a pony and try to figure out how to turn their abilities into moves." Getting the idea, Mew flies down to Pinkie and turns into Shuckle, telling her to let loose on it to see what she can do. Blitzle and Rainbow retreat a distance to try some priority or flying moves. Sableye and Rarity decided to see what she could do with lots of gems to control. Ponyta takes Applejack away to try some powerful physical attacks, as well as bringing Spike along to try fire attacks. Twilight telekineticaly brings Keldeo along to talk about a few things, so Darkrai floats over to Fluttershy. "I assume you would not like to fight?"
"Oh, no. I can't bring myself to." Fluttershy said.
"That's okay. I didn't expect you to want to be in the fight. I would expect you to be far better at making sure any other Pokemon who arrive understand that this is a different place and they need to change their behaviors to follow the rules. Sound like your kind of fun?" Darkrai asked.
Fluttershy grinned. "Yes."


-------------------------------------------


"Are you going to put me down?" Keldeo asked for the fifth time, right before he was promptly dropped from the magic. "Oof!"
"Yes, and we are going to talk. You act as if you have training masters, but they haven't been mentioned. You took a step back and with one slice of your horn-" Twilight began.
"Sword. Not horn, sword." Keldeo interrupted. "Sorry, I'm a little sensitive about that."
"Sorry. With one slice of your sword you destroy my brother's shield and that's pretty much impossible! You also mentioned disappointing some pony. Explain yourself." Twilight demanded.
Keldeo laughed. "That's what your worried about? Okay. I looked at the shield and saw that there was a part of it that was weaker than the rest due to the construction of it. I just took a slice at it and it broke. As for how I could tell, I was put through much training by Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion, or the Swords of Justice. Cobalion is the leader, and taught me to both know how to fight and dodge any Pokemon, so I've learned every Pokemon's strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and move sets, as well as every move effect and power. Virizion taught me about using speed and misdirection with confusing movements to confuse foes and easily get to a position to hold the upper hand. Terrakion is the one who taught me to hit hard in any weak points I can. From that I've learned to always be on the lookout for any way to gain an advantage."
Twilight looked amazed. "You know everything there is to know about Pokemon?"
Keldeo shrugged. "I guess that's one way of saying it. I do want to know more about you creatures."
Twilight smiled. "I can help with that. I think we are going to get along just fine, Keldeo."
> Special Episode: Lopunny's New Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It had been a day since the Trailblazers had left Ponyville, and the Guild had gotten some attention. After all, Pokemon appearing out of nowhere made sense, but a tent and underground areas that could have been built overnight was unthinkable. Lopunny found herself reading one of Chimecho's cookbooks to amuse herself while Bidoof and Chatot explained the Guild and introduced the seven present members. Diglett had gotten a sign put up outside the tent saying "STAND ON THE GRATE, WAIT FOR THE OKAY, YELL NAME DOWN GRATE THEN ENTER. PLEASE AND THANK YOU." Lopunny couldn't figure out how he got it there, but figured he could have asked for help. She wanted all the attention to go away so she could check out the town. Spotting her chance when no one was one the ladder, she climbed up and began wandering around. She was amazed at how perfectly the town was arranged, with all stores here, restaurants there, houses over here. She found nothing strange or amusing, and was about to turn around when she saw a little white rabbit that was sneaking around. Upon seeing her, it started to hop away.
"No you don't." She said, leaping after it. She caught up easily, and picked up the rabbit. "Now what are you doing sneaking around? Someone could accidentally kick you."
"Just 'cause you're another bunny doesn't mean I have to listen to you. Besides, you can't even understand me, only Fluttershy can." The bunny crossed her arms.
Lopunny shook her head. "I'm assuming you don't get out much. I can understand you and Fluttershy asked us to check her house a few times a day to make sure her animals are all right."
The bunny's eyes widened slightly. "You're joking. That was a lucky guess as to who I said."
Lopunny smirked. "Not a joke, not a guess. I'm Lopunny. Who are you?"	
The bunny sighed, as if admitting defeat. "I'm Angel Bunny."
"Nice to meet you, Angel. I'm going to take you back home now. I think I'm going to need your help."


------------------------------------------------------


Lopunny found that Fluttershy had a lot of animals. She had more animals than there were Guild members, Lopunny figured. She opened the door and put Angel inside, and proceeded to follow her in. "I was asked to make sure all the animals are fed and everything is okay. I hope that you will be able to help me out."
Angel crossed her arms. "What's in it for me? Other than carrots, which are in easy reach of me."
Lopunny crossed her arms. "Demanding little bunny, are you? What could you want that I may be able to provide?"
Angel stopped and thought, ending up coming with a blank. "Can I get a little while to decide? I don't know right now."
Lopunny smiled. "Help me out and I'll consider giving you a rain check on a favor. Deal?"
Angel shrugged. "Deal."


------------------------------------------------------


Please keep me safe until I awaken.
These were the words driving it to wrap itself around its only true friend, cocooning itself around. It had thought it had left this place a while ago, but when the pair had appeared in its old home, they were more than a little confused. The creature hoped to end up somewhere nice soon, as last time it found somewhere it had been attacked by a powerful dragon. It decided to close its eyes and rest for now, but it never stopped paying attention to the surroundings. Knowing that its friend could help, even when asleep, it wished that they could land somewhere soon. It was getting very tired of outer space.
> A Hard Day's Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Keldeo was pleased. For the past few days he had been in charge of training for fighting the Thunderclaps, and every single one of them had made progress. He had helped increase the speed between attacks to give the foes less time to counter. He increased the accuracy of magic and figured out how to give shields an elemental charge. It was Monday night and everyone was having dinner. Keldeo, however, had bigger things on his mind.
"I need to speak with both of you." He said as he entered the throne room.
"What's wrong, Keldeo? You look like you have something that's bugging you." Celestia said, concerned.
"There is. What if we fail to beat them? Blitzle assures me they outnumber the forces who can fight, and Darkrai and I don't want any civilian injuries. We may have equal power but the number we are going to be going up against could beat us. There needs to be a way to prevent civilians from getting hurt."
Luna smiled. "We already have it taken care of. After the recent Changeling invasion, we have taken precautions against any of our subjects getting harmed who aren't prepared for it. We have an escape plan, do not worry."
Keldeo nodded. "Excellent. Oh, and Darkrai wanted me to pass on a message. He said that he noticed some strange sort-of-nightmares on the loose, and wanted me to warn you that they don't appear to be abnormal at first glance. I figure it means something more to you than to me?" Luna nodded. "Great. Thank you for you time and giving us a place to train to fight the Thunderclaps. I will do everything I can to stop them."


--------------------------------------


Space was fluid. Time was up for debate. The laws of physics did not exist. In dreams, all were true and Darkrai was king. He flowed between dreams, keeping an eye of all dreams. He detected another presence in the dream he is in, and called out. "Hello Luna. Have you noticed any strange dreams?"
Luna walked over to him. "Yes. Some ponies are acting strange, as if they are somewhere else that they wish never to leave.  Others are tired, even in their dream, but cannot stop dancing to strange music. Yet others are acting very violently, trying to fight anything or any pony that comes close. The last kind of strange dreams have the ponies floating not under their control. Other than those strange qualities, the dreams are normal. Have you any idea what's going on?"
"I have no idea. i was hoping I was imagining these strange dreams. However, it appears i had not been." Darkrai shook his head. "I do wish we could fix it, but my only guess is to unleash my power on them and then relent. The overload of nightmare should do a hard reset on their dreams, but it could force them awake with too much power."
"Then don't do it. They aren't nightmares, just strange dreams. There is something more you wished to speak to me of?" Luna questioned.
"Yes. I figured that giving a more in-depth review of legendary Pokemon would give you a better shot at not angering them, because some Pokemon aren't good at 'forgiving' or 'ignoring' anything that bugs them. Some can have major anger issues, but most only are quick to anger if some big thing has happened to them."
"Like coming to a world they don't recognize and where they are not recognized?" Luna smirked at Darkrai's silence.
It was 10 seconds before he spoke. "Yes. Like that. would you like me to start with the ones most likely to fit in or the ones who would stand out like a light in the darkness?"
Luna considered this. "I would prefer to ones less likely to attack first, as opposed to fitting in."
Darkrai chuckled. "As you wish. First would the Pokemon of songs..."


--------------------------------------


Raichu was sitting on a rock, eating an apple. "They won't know what hit them. Aside from it being us, of course."
Electivire looked at his leader. "Are you sure, sir? They have two legendary Pokemon on their side, and Blitzle is immune to our electric attacks. I fear they may have a fighting chance if they can get enough help."
Raichu laughed at him. "We have an army, they have maybe a battalion. Besides, we have our secret weapon. Not even Blitzle knows we have it. Too bad it has to be told what to do and can't figure it out on its own. Stupid, but insanely vicious and powerful."
"True. Perhaps it should occupy Mew and Darkrai for us, or perhaps I could fight Darkrai with my fighting-type attacks and it could take Mew."
Raichu smirked. It was an unsettling smirk, but Electivire did not voice that opinion. "Great idea. HEY! YOU!" Raichu called out. Two red dots appeared in the darkness. "New orders: When you see Mew and Darkrai, destroy them. Got it, amigo?"
The red dots glowed brighter. In a strange, flat, robotic voice, it replied. "MEW. DARKRAI. DESTROY."
> Claps of Thunder, Bolts of Lightning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Every pony woke up with the sun. None of them wanted to let Raichu have time to prepare for them. As they headed to the area they had been attacked, Ponyta pulled Applejack aside.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Ponyta asked nervously.
A little confused, Applejack shrugged. "Sure. What do you need?"
"You're the one with a connection to truth, right?"
"Honesty, actually, but yeah." Applejack was now confused. "Why?"
"Have you ever gotten strange dreams due to your element?"
Applejack was now really confused. "No. What do you mean by 'strange dreams'?"
Ponyta sighed. "For the past few days, I've had this strange dream. I've been in a white area, surrounded by fire. There's this voice, it sounds female, but with power behind it, in a way. I never see what's talking, but it always asks the same thing: 'Do you seek the truth?' and I don't know what it means by that. Darkrai refuses to look into it and Luna told me she couldn't get in during that dream, but can be in my dreamscape before and after the dream. I thought it was just me, but Blitzle complained to me about a similar dream."
Applejack shrugged. "Sorry, I don't know what that is. You could ask Twilight, but I don't know what's going on."
Outside the castle, Keldeo walked over to Shining Armor. "Your wife was worried about you. She made me promise to bring you back in one piece. She said you hadn't been married long. She also made me promise to keep and eye on Twilight so she doesn't over exert herself. Mind helping out with that part?" He tugged at a head band it had on.
Shining smiled. "Part of the plan. Hopefully, it won't come to the point here she would need to. The guard and I should be able to handle many of them."
Eventually, Canterlot's defenders got outside the barrier and found Raichu and his gang waiting for them. Fluttershy, still in the barrier with Rarity, shuddered. "There are so many of them. Good luck."
Darkrai turned back to her. "All will be well. Don't worry."
"Yo nightmare! Done saying your goodbyes?" Raichu taunted. "We got all day to take you guys down, but we really don't want to wait very long."
"Shut up Raichu. We're not going to lose." Blitzle called back.
"Funny, our ace thinks differently." Electivire responded.
"Your ace? What ace?" Mew asked.
A parting in the gang revealed a figure walking forward. It was bipedaled and had four limbs. It was purple and towered over all of the defenders but Darkrai. Its eyes were red, and it would have looked like a large insect if it wasn't for the fact that it had a large cannon on its upper back.
"Genesect? What are you doing?" Darkrai asked. "It's me, Darkrai. You're on our side."
"DARKRAI?" It asked in a robotic tone.
"That doesn't sound like the Genesect I know. Come on Genesect, we don't have time for games right now." Mew said.
"MEW?" Genesect asked.
Mew giggled. "Okay, the voice is kinda funny in a creepy sort of way. Yeah, it's me."
"DESTROY!" Genesect lunged towards Mew, who teleported off to the side.
"Over here!" Mew called. Genesect turned and launced itself at Mew. Mew transformed into Magmortar. "I didn't want to fight you, but fine! Flamethrower!" Mew launched a wave of fire at Genesect, who dodged and tried to hit with X-Scissor.
Darkrai had been intercepted by Electivire, and was floating around it to prevent from being caught in one place. It was surprisingly agile, and was able to avoid many of Darkrai's attacks. It couldn't land any of its fighting type attacks, but it kept Darkrai too occupied to help the rest of the fight. Blitzle and Raichu were batting one-on-one, slam versus Flame Charge and Wild Charge. Keldeo was dealing with Manectric, Luxray, and Heliolisk, using superior agility to avoid their attacks. Ponyta fought Magnezone, and Sableye fought Eelecktross. The ponies had to struggle with the rest, but they also had magic, better speed, and very powerful kicks on their side. Spike was relatively unaffected by the electric attacks, surprising everybody, and used his fire to drive back and distract the foes, occasionally going in for actual damage.
"Fall! Slam!" Raichu yelled, launching himself at Blitzle.
"Never! Wild Charge!" Blitzle avoided Raichu and shoulder-checked him away.
Twilight blasted foes away with magic, not noticing Galvantula coming up behind her. Suddenly, Sableye flew over her head and Slashed the bug away. She glanced backwards, and quickly figured out what happened. Rarity was using the gems on Sableye's back to influence how it moved. Sableye gave Twilight a thumbs-up, before getting magically tossed back at Eelecktross.
"Don't try to fight all of them at once. I've got your back." Rarity called to her.
Pinkie had somehow gotten her party cannon into a fight again, and was blasting every electric type around her. She eventually was able to make her way to Mew and Genesect, and blasted Genesect from behind with her cannon. "Weeeeee! Cheer up, purple guy!"
Genesect turned towards her. It got down on all fours and its cannon began to glow. Pinkie only just barely got out of the way as it fired Techno Blast straight through the crowd.
"Electric? How? You were just using water!" Mew complained, hitting Genesect with Fire Blast. "Unless you found a way to load your drives into your cannon! You can switch between them at will now! Amazing! I didn't think you would be able to. We've been unable to figure out how to. When did you do that?"
Genesect didn't respond, and instead knocked Mew back with Iron Head, before turning towards the barrier and blasting that with Techno Blast. The barrier began to crack, and would have shattered had Mew not used Overheat on Genesect from behind.
"That's out of line, Genesect!" Mew said, losing her fun tone. "This ends, now." Mew used Flare Blitz, and when Genesect tried to recover hit it with Fire Punch, and then Thunder Punch.
After getting hit with Thunder Punch, Genesect began to act strangely. It seemed to shut down. It soon rebooted, but its eyes no longer glowed. "Who decided it would be a good idea to attack me?" Genesect spoke, but not as it had before. It still had the robotic undertones, but its voice sounded more organic. "Must destroy. Don't want to, cannot resist." Genesect launched itself into the sky, disappearing into the clouds.
"What a waste of a fighter, leaving like that." Raichu threw Blitzle into Ponyta. It proceeded to use Thunder on Keldeo, right through the horn. "Not like we need it. How do you like over 100,000 volts right to the horn?"
"I've. Felt. Worse." Keldeo stands up, fighting the powerful attack. "And its not a horn. Its a sword!" Keldeo then began to change, as if years of its life were put in fast-forward. Its hoofs grew up its legs a bit, its mane and tail became larger, its sword grew longer and turned blue, it gained a more determined expression and three feathers grow on the side of its head. "Try to keep up, Raichu. Sacred Sword!" Keldeo lunged towards Raichu, its horn flattening out and becoming even longer. It swiped at Raichu, and then lunged again. "Secret Sword!" It knocked Raichu back, and then proceeded to go to take out the weaker members so they don't get overwhelmed.
Raichu got back up. "Still got tricks up your sleeve, eh? Here's mine." Raichu unleashed Thunder, but in went over every pony's head and broke through the barrier. Raichu then proceeded to electrocute Fluttershy and Rarity.
"What the-" Ponyta looked. She turned towards Raichu and her flames shot up. "FLAMETHROWER!" She was surprised when she fired a giant blast of fire at Raichu.
At the same time, Blitzle sparked up at ran at Raichu. "YOU DIRTY CHEATER! WILD CHARGE!" He roared as he sparked up. He suddenly became encircled by blue electricity. The ball of electricity then solidified as armor around Blitzle while maintaining a spherical lightning ball, and he slammed into Raichu head first.
By this time, most of the rest of the gang had been beaten. Keldeo turned back to normal, and Twilight walked towards Raichu. "You've lost. Just give up now."
Raichu stood, a little shakily, holding one arm with the other. "You're right. I've lost and can't win the fight at this point." He then smirked. "Doesn't mean I can't put one of you out of commission for a long time." Raichu then sprinted towards Twilight like lightning.
Too shocked to put up a shield, Twilight braced for Raichu's attack. Suddenly, Keldeo leaped in front of her.
"Not this time!" His horn became his sword once more, and he held it in a defensive stance. Raichu's fist slammed into him, and he sliced back in response. Raichu immediately crumpled, having lost all his HP. Keldeo wobbled for a bit, and fell on his side.
"Good shot, Sword of Justice." Darkrai said, floating over. "What did you do?"
Keldeo chuckled. "Counter. Can't actually learn it, according to Cobalion. Turns damage taken into a counterattack twice as powerful. Focus Punch. Power 150, the strongest fighting type attack. On an unsuspecting Pokemon, it can put them unconscious for weeks. On a creature with no resistance to the attack, it can do a lot worse. I was only able to counter because of this." He indicates the headband. "Focus Band. 10% chance of holding on with one HP when hit by an attack that would knock you out normally." Keldeo pushed himself up. "I'm going to need some time to recover from that."
Using its Psychic powers, Mew carried the Thunderclaps and Keldeo to the castle, planning on putting the bad guys away and Keldeo into bed.
> Special Episode: The Power of the Normal Type
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Bidoof found that he was easily able to fall into society here, at least in Ponyville. He missed the Trailblazers, and hoped that the business in Canterlot finished soon. He couldn't complain about Ponyville, though. Partially due to the lack of Guild members, Bidoof had been able to take more help requests in a weekend than most teams got in a week. Mostly they were odd jobs, but a few needed some more work. He was also happy that Chatot had agreed after consideration that the Guild could be used as a sort of hang out for those who wanted to. It was Monday and he was going to go get three fillies from school. They were fun to be around, and the promise of being told more about the Guild and Pokemon was enough to make hem do their school work as fast as they could. Bidoof found them a little excitable and maybe a bit reckless, but they were good kids and he liked seeing them having fun. When he arrived at the schoolhouse about 5 minutes after class ended due to taking a wrong turn, however, he found them having anything but.
"You blank flanks aren't going to amount to anything!" A pink pony taunted.
"Unless you've gotten your cutie marks. Oh wait, you haven't!" A grey one called to a group of three ponies, who looked disheartened.
"Back off, both of you!" Bidoof yelled, walking over to the three fillies he came to get, standing between them and the bullies. "What's wrong with you two, picking on these three?"
"There's nothing wrong with us, it's what's wrong with them! They still don;t have their cutie marks!" Diamond Tiara said.
Bidoof considered. "I have to agree that there's something wrong with these three, but it isn't cutie marks or the lack thereof. It's the fact that this sort of joke bothers them." Bidoof heard the 'Huh?' from all five, and figured it was time to give them as much of a lesson as he can give. Chatot's the one who should do this kind of thing, but he isn't here! Bidoof took a deep breath.
"I think that these three are like me, at least for now."
Silver Spoon rolled her eyes. "Annoying and useless?"
Bidoof laughed. "Is that the best you've got? No, I think that they're normal types, basically."
Diamond Tiara laughed. "Like she said, useless."
Bidoof shook his head. "You don't get it! The normal type isn't the type with the best average special attack, or best defense, or the hgihest average anything. Normal type Pokemon are just that: normal. There is almost nothing they can do that other Pokemon can't." At this point, the fillies aren't sure if he's trying to help Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo or bully them. "However, it goes the other way too. There is almost nothing that other Pokemon can do that normal types can't do as well. The thing about normal types is that they are the most varied Pokemon type. Most water types are fish or other marine life. Most flying types are birds. Most normal types are, well, abnormal. There is nothing harder to define in Pokemon types than the normal type. Normal types have the most potential out of any other type. We have the capability to do far more than most Pokemon of the other types. You two are stuck in a box, like how fire types rarely can deal with a water type on their own. These three? They can handle anything life throws at them, and from what I've heard they've done that. So please stop picking on them for being normal, because they seem to me to be anything but. Come on, you three. Chatot's probably going to think I got into a battle because I've been gone so long." Bidoof starts to leave with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. He stops and turns back towards Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. "If you ever want to come hang out at the Guild, I won't hold this against you. If you bully in the guild or around me again, though, Lopunny and Chatot may have more than a few words with you. Have a good day!" Bidoof then turned and ran to catch up to the Crusaders.
"Thanks Bidoof. Those two really get into our heads." Sweetie Bell said.
"I was really just parroting what I heard Chatot and Wigglytuff say to defend me from bullies back in Treasure Town. It was because of that event that I joined the Wigglytuff Guild in the first place." Bidoof smiled. "Maybe a helping hand is all it takes to turn a day from bad to good."
"That doesn't matter! You could have waited and watched, but you didn't." Scootaloo said. "So thanks."
"Get behind me or run. There is a menacing looking Pokemon I don't recognize." Bidoof said, his tone gaining business. The three immediately hide behind him.
The Pokemon turns to look. "You are a Bidoof, yes?" Its voice sounded a mechanical, like Officer Magnezone's. Its arms were bent, as though carrying It gestures with its head towards the guild's tent. "You live in this house?"
Bidoof nodded. "Who are you and why do you care? What do you want?"
The Pokemon looked at Bidoof, its eyes glowing for a second. "I am Genesect. I asked because I need help, and I saw a Pokemon giving its face for a tent. I need help, but I did not wish to come in without being invited."
Apple Bloom peeked out at Genesect. "What do you need?"
Genesect's eyes glowed again. "I need someone to talk to, and... I need my friend to be healed. She is the reason I have control of myself again." Genesect knelt down and showed what it was carrying. It looked female, was sort of curled up, and looked badly hurt. The most identifiable part of her was her hair, wrapped around her like a baby in a blanket. Her hair was green with several lines across and through it, with blue dots on some of the lines. "I saw her being attacked by dragons. I drove them off, but she's badly hurt. She spent her energy while she was conscious to rid me of the order to destroy. I need her healed. Help Meloetta."
> Deoxyribonucleic Acid
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After depositing the Thunderclaps into jail and Keldeo into bed, Mew teleported back to the throne room, where all the others ent to talk to the princesses.
"I can't believe that Raichu did that!" Rarity was saying.
Fluttershy nodded. "It didn't hurt much, but it was a strange sensation that didn't feel very good."
Blitzle held up his hoof. "Wait. Raichu's THUNDER didn't hurt? He broke through the shields, how are you not hurt?"
Mew floated over and sat on Blitzle's head. "He broke though the block shields. I had other passive shields up that decreased damage. In this case, Light Screen was the prime defender. Unfortunately, I only thought to set it up as part of the shields, not on all of you. That probably would have made more sense."
Rainbow shrugged. "Eh, it worked. No need to worry about them anymore."
Celestia nodded. "Yes, and we must thank you for preventing any advance into Canterlot."
Darkrai floated to the window and looked out towards the sky. "There needs to be a way to let Pokemon know what's going on better than fighting them. We've been lucky that no incident has happened yet where Pokemon attack towns and cities other than this one, but what do we do when that luck runs out?"
Twilight nodded. "You're right. There needs to be a better way. Good thing there haven't been aggressive Pokemon falling from the sky or rising out of the ground yet."
Mew floated off of Blitzle. "I think I'll pay a visit to the Guild, get them in on the situation." Mew teleported off.
Darkrai turned around. "You may wish to see this." It gestured out the window. Applejack got there first and saw what he meant. There was a crater in the ground outside of Canterlot, and there seemed to be something in the crater.
"I don't know what that is, but I think we need to know what that is." She said. "Let's go."


--------------------------------------------


Spike sat at the edge of the crater. "It looks like a giant gem. Strange shape, though."
Rarity nodded. "It does, but I've never seen a gem of that color. Red and blue-green? How do you fuse a ruby to sapphire or emerald?"
Ponyta looked it up and down. "It looks strange, but nothing seems too out of the ordinary."
Spike turned over to her, Rarity, and Darkrai. "Uh, guys? Is the color... moving?" Spike was right, the color seemed to be moving up the object.
Darkrai floated in front of them. "Back away, all of you. Especially you, Twilight. This is a Pokemon that is very interesting to study, yes, but wait until it is calmed."
Rainbow laughed. "You call that rock a Pokemon? Please. I could smash it before it moves, just watch." Before Darkrai could stop her, she flew straight at the rock and bucked it with both back hooves. Rainbow flew back over to Darkrai. "See? Didn't do a thing to me."
The rock shuddered, and the red and blue-green floated off of the rock and formed into a pitch black triangle.
Darkrai growled. "You foolish pegasus! You just made it mad!" Darkrai's voice sounded like a demon. "Watch!"
The triangle floated still for a second, and then shot down and (to Darkrai's perspective) to the left. Then up more and to the right. Then down to the right. Far up and far right. Right. Far down and left. Up and left. Right. Down and left. Up. The triangle floated in place for a second, and four tentacles sprouted out of it. The triangle and tentacles gained color, two red, two blue-green, and the triangle was a mix of both. A purple gem appeared in the triangle. The triangle formed into a body, bipedalled. The arms came together and flattened, the point on the triangle rounded, the body became wider. The Pokemon looked at them and opened its eyes.
Darkrai pulled its hands from its side and calmly spoke. "We do not wish to fight you, Deoxys. Please, calm down."
Deoxys floated in front of it, staring. Suddenly, it trust its arms in front of it and fired a giant beam at the group. It hit Darkrai directly, darkrai taking the full blast with the beam not going past it.
"DARKRAI!" Ponyta yelled.
"Do not engage Deoxys under any means." Darkrai said, before bringing its arms up and firing a beam in response. Dark Pulse cut through Deoxys's attack and knocked Deoxys back. "Your Psycho Boost does nothing to me. Calm yourself."
A voice was heard in everyone's heads. It was child-like, but not child-pitched. "Why? We were attacked by the blue. Must protect friend. No harm may come. Promised to keep safe." Deoxys tilted its head. "Planet is not home. Planet should be home. Nightmare, why is home not here?"
Darkrai lowered its hands. "Deoxys, this is not our world. We can here without planning on it, however there seems to be more at work here. Do not attack us, we aren't going to attack you, RIGHT, Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow smiled guiltily. "Yeah... sorry about that."
Twilight walked over to Darkrai. "Who is 'friend'? Why did Deoxys call you Nightmare?"
Darkrai sighed. "Deoxys, while being very powerful, is a young Pokemon. It has only been around for maybe the past decade or two. It is more like a robot than Genesect, due to not having anyone teach it. It is hyper-intelligent, but doesn't know how to use it. It called me Nightmare because it sometimes uses descriptions in place of names. As for friend, ask it."
Twilight turned to Deoxys. "Deoxys? Who is 'friend'?"
Deoxys ignored her. "Is this a safe place? This world, is it safe?"
Darkrai nodded. "Safe enough."
Deoxys nodded, morphing into the smaller body, its arms becoming tentacles again, twisting them into a double helix. It turned to the rock behind it before speaking. "It is safe. Wake up now."
The rock shuddered once more, and then split open. A strange creature floated up, surrounded in a blue outline. Twilight realized that Deoxys was using psychic powers to lift the Pokemon out. The Pokemon was about Mew's size, and had three points on it's head. Its eyes opened slowly, and then yawned loudly.
"Good morning, Deoxys. Have we landed yet?" The Pokemon had a very young voice, like Mew. It looked around. "Darkrai? How are you? I haven't seen you in a while! Hey, who are you? You don't look like Pokemon."
Darkrai nodded. "They are not. Jirachi, Deoxys? I'd like you to meet some natives. Spike, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, as well as a rescue team consisting of Blitzle, Ponyta, and Sableye. You all? I would like to introduce Deoxys, the DNA Pokemon, and Jirachi, the wish Pokemon. Deoxys can turn into 4 different formes to give itself an advantage in any situation, and Jirachi grants wishes."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Grants wishes? That's kind of hard to believe."
Jirachi smiled. "How is it hard? Make a wish!"
"I wish I knew how the rest of the guild is doing." Blitzle said.
Jirachi giggled. "Chatot, Diglett, Bidoof, and Lopunny are settling in. Several other teams have come to this planet, but none are in danger. Most are, coincidentally, heading towards the guild base here. Wigglytuff has searched every inch of Treasure Town and the Mystery Dungeons for you guys, and to help his cause the entire guild has gone everywhere. To fill in for Lopunny, he has joined with Team Charm temporarily. Team Skull has become a Probationary Rescue Team for the guild, meaning they have to report what they did for the day to Chatot at dinner. The guild here has also gotten some more help from Genesect and Meloetta. Mew is refilling food supplies, as well as recovery seeds and items."
"Genesect?" Ponyta looked incredulous.
"He calmed down." Jirachi said.
Applejack cleared her throat. "I think we should report back to the princesses, and then head back home." With the nods of approval and Deoxys tilting its head, the group headed back to the castle.
> The Ride Back
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After the landing of Deoxys and Jirachi, the two Pokemon were brought inside to get their bearings about the new world. Darkrai promised that it'd find a way to get legendary Pokemon a better place than the castle for the time being.
"Nothing against Canterlot, but if Zekrom or even Xerneas or Yveltal arrived, they would be too large to really fit through the doors. There needs to be a better place for them to live, as our usual... homes, we shall say, are not here. I will try to find unoccupied caves or forest clearings for use." Darkrai explained before flying off towards the mountains. Darkrai had expressed worry that some legends were already in Equestria, but went into no more detail, leaving some with a sense of foreboding.
"Well then. Unless there is anything else you want us to stay for we should go back to Ponyville." Blitzer said to Mew and the princesses. "Not that it hasn't been fun here, but I want to go back to the Guild. Lopunny hadn't been near the Guild for some time, and she always has fun stories to tell about Team Charm's adventures."
That had been an hour ago. The Trailblazers, the Elements, Spike and, to everyone's surprise, Keldeo were on the train to Ponyville. It could be a boring trip, so Pinkie pestered the Sword of Justice into telling tales of the Swords of Justice. She didn't pester so much as ask, as Keldeo was more than happy to tell.
"Oh, where to begin..." Keldeo mused. "Perhaps describing the others in more detail. There are three other Swords of Justice, Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion. All of us are part Fighting, but Cobalion is part Steel, Virizion is part Grass, and Terrakion is part Rock. Cobalion is the leader, and has the most even mix of attack, speed, and defenses. Virizion is the fastest, and Terrakion is the powerhouse. I'm the new one, and I have the worst actual combat training of us, as I joined much later than they formed. To make up for it, they did everything they could to get me on par. They taught me to use my water shooting hooves to travel quickly, give me large jumps, weapons, and the ability to travel across the surface of water. They drilled me until I knew everything about Pokemon. As I told Twilight-" He points a hoof towards her. "-I know every weakness any Pokemon has, be it from typing, ability, or capabilities. I can easily find weak points, and use my environment and moves to dodge nearly everything. So, with that out of the way, how about the story of how we fought Tornadus and Thundurus?"
"Who are those and why do they sound like weather?" Rainbow asked.
"They are weather. Torandus is the spirit of cyclones, and Thundurus is the bringer of storms. The pair of them love their pranks and mischief. Normally Landorus takes care of them, but it had business elsewhere, so we had to stop them from causing too much destruction. Which was odd, as they don't try to cause too much destruction, snd usually use their powers to mess with others, like using high winds to knock Pokemon over, or lightning to scare. This time, for whatever reason, they went against their normal and tried to destroy a pretty large area. At the time, I was asleep in a cave. Virizion woke me up, telling me we had another mission. We stepped outside and there was a huge tornado in front of the entrance. Virizion's Sacred Sword couldn't break through, so it told me to try my Secret Sword. When that didn't work, Virizion told me to stay put and ran deeper into the cave. When it returned, it had a couple of Graveler, a rock-ground type Pokemon. The Graveler lined up, and rolled into the twister, getting sucked up into it. After about ten seconds, which had me yelling at Virizion, the tornado stopped and the Graveler landed soon after. Virizion explained that it had gotten them to use Rollout up the tornado and into Tornadus. The disruption was enough for us to get out of the cave and over to Cobalion. It warned that we were all at a disadvantage due to being Fighting-type, but we had an advantage due to Terrakion's Rock-type being good against Flying, and Thundurus's Electric attacks being weak to Virizion's Grass. Cobalion had me and Terrakion fight Tornadus, while it and Virizion took on Thundurus."
Rainbow laughed. "Really? You needed to do two on one to fight them? That's pathetic!"
Keldeo began to respond, but Blitzle spoke first. "You try to buck a cloud while you're trapped in a tornado and the cloud can move in any direction at high speeds, or a cloud in a lightning storm aimed for you that can also move at high speeds."
Rainbow couldn't answer, so Keldeo continued. "Terrakion doesn't have ranged attacks, but I do. The plan was to pester Tornadus enough that it forgot the advantage it had by being in the air, and coming into range of Terrakion. I launched my Hydro Pump up, and it caught it in the back."
"How high up was it? I doubt any Pokemon could send a Hydro Pump hundreds of feet." Ponyta asked.
"They were only about 30 feet up, really low for them." Keldeo said. "It turned at the hit just in time to get hit by a second. It must have been really annoyed, as it used Hurricane and flew down at us. I got knocked back by the winds, but Terrakion stood firm and caught Tornadus squarely with Stone Edge, even scoring a critical hit. Unfortunately, Tornadus wasn't done yet and smashed Terrakion with Hammer Arm. I retaliated with Icy Wind, and Terrakion's second Stone Edge knocked Tornadus down. It shook its head and saw the destruction it had caused. It said that it hadn't realized just how bad the destruction was. Thundurus was soon dealt with as well, and apologized similarly to Tornadus." Keldeo grinned, but then looked indifferent. "Come to think of it, they weren't the only Pokemon acting strange, and it was soon before I arrived here. Maybe they're related incidents, or maybe I just can't remember well."
"I hope there isn't that much fighting every time we meet a Pokemon. I just can't stand that much fighting." Fluttershy said. "I understand that it's a central part of your culture and society, but it isn't on Equestria."
Sableye came over and gave her a hug as Blitzle spoke. "Trust me, I don't want to be fighting all the time either. A break from serious fights is a welcome thing."


-------------------------------------------


Diglett had been asked to go check out the Everfree to see if he could find anything useful the others may have missed about an hour ago. Chatot had taken up the post of doorguard, but he did it at the entrance as opposed to being underground. He debated sending someone after Diglett, as he had gone with Bidoof, who returned 15 minutes ago. Just as he was about to send someone, he saw Diglett coming closer at a quick pace. "About time you showed up! We've been waiting for you! Bidoof said you were right behind him!"
Diglett looked down. "Sorry Chatot. I thought I found something, so I followed it for longer than I should have. It turned out to be nothing, though."
Chatot sighed. "At least you're back in one piece. Please take your post as sentry in your underground hole, but don't expect too much for a few hours. All the inhabitants are busy, and most of the Guild here is staying here for a while, as there isn't much to do. Hopefully the Trailblazers are going to be back in a little while, as Mew said they were leaving several hours ago, as well as Twilight and her friends." Chatot went back into the Guild, leaving Diglett alone outside for a little bit.
Diglett chuckled. "Fool. Doesn't even know he's being fooled. Best to keep my cover as long as I can, however. Blowing it too soon would get me in lots of trouble. Oh well, better make use of the information I was told on these Pokemon..."


-------------------------------------------


Deoxys floated aimlessly through Canterlot Castle, wondering how to occupy its time. It could go to the library, but it didn't know if it could read the language. It could play with Jirachi, but Jirachi was nowhere to be found. As it debated the best action, it heard a voice. Deoxys, knowing that the voice was something else speaking to its mind, followed the voice to a garden. Deoxys floated over to a creature strange even by most Pokemon standards.
A castle guard saw Deoxys, and flew in front of it. "Sorry big guy, but I cannot let you go past me."
"Then I will not pass you." Deoxys said. "But I must continue my path." Deoxys then disappeared. The guard looked around and saw Deoxys had teleported past, and was sitting down in Normal Forme in front of the statue.
"Hey! That guy's dangerous! He's-"
"Bored and lonely, as am I. Is h dangerous? The answer is yes. Am I? Possibly more so. I choose to speak with this creature, and that is what I will do. I will not release him, I promise you that. If you will excuse me, I must return to my conversation." Deoxys turned back to the statue and the guard turned back to prevent any others from coming in. Unbeknownst to either, the statue's inhabitant already had plans for his return, and he had been making precautions to make him unbeatable.
> Victory with the Guild
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Sweet Arceus that train ride felt like it took days." Keldeo complained, stepping out of the train and looking around. "Nice town here."
"Who's Arceus?" Twilight asked, with agreement from the others.
"The most powerful Pokemon in every aspect. It tones itself down in most battles it goes into to give foes a chance, but it doesn't need to in order to win easily."
Blitzle laughed. "How powerful is most powerful?"
Before Keldeo could answer, a building went up in flames. Keldeo launched forward, using his hooves as jets to go faster. "Is there anyo- anypony inside?" It asked a pony who had just come out.
"No, just me." With that reply, Keldeo blasted Water Gun up the house so that it sprinkled down and put out the fire outside. It then rushed in to put out the remaining fire, in case there was one. It emerged soon after with odd news.
"No fire inside and no signs of fire inside. This must have been started outside, likely on purpose for it to only catch this house on fire." Keldeo shook its head in confusion. "Why would anything start one fire on one specific house? If they didn't like you, they should have set lots of houses on fire to throw all of us off their trail."
Twilight walked over to it, also confused. "There isn't any trace of a magical source. This fire was caused either naturally or by a Pokemon, even if natural was lighting striking wood that was brought over."
Rainbow flew down to them. "Unless they were hiding really well, there aren't any Pokemon outside around here, I looked from above."
Keldeo stomped the ground, frustrated. "This isn't funny trying to figure out who the arsonist is! It isn't a game!" Keldeo is then lifted up and thrown across town.
A voice taunts everypony, but aimed at Keldeo. "Heh. It is to me, and you know as well as I do that I don't lose when we play games." A small Pokemon smaller than Sableye appears in front of them. It looked sort of like a rabbit, with big, pointy ears forming a V on its forehead. It had small wings attached to the back of its legs, and had a smirk that scared those that saw it. It also was grayscaled.
Keldeo ran over and saw what threw it. "Victini? What was that for?"
"Its a game. Me versus everyone, who will win? I think the answer is obvious, as I always win."
Keldeo shook its head. "You don't sound like you. You don't really look like you either, and you definitely don't act like you. Therefore, you are not you."
Victini, dodging Blitzle's lightning, shrugged. "Want proof?" Victini pointed a finger at the ground in front of Keldeo. "Searing Shot!" A ball of fire surrounded Victini, which then shot down at Keldeo's feet, igniting the ground. Keldeo began putting out the fire immediately.
"Stay... Still!" Blitzle growled, trying to electrocute or slam into Victini, who was dodging.
"How about no?" Victini used Psychic to pick up everypony and threw them in various directions. The only exceptions were Keldeo and Sableye. "Stupid imp thing... begone!" Sableye didn't move, and only looked confused. "Why do you not go flying away?"
"Because." A fun-sounding voice said, causing Victini to look around. "As I really should know, Psychic doesn't affect Dark types like Sableye!" Victini is then knocked to the side by another Victini, this one in color. "Foolish faker, you really need to learn more about Pokemon you fight, not just the one you are!" Victini giggled to itself before going straight up.
"Stop moving already!" Blitzle yelled up at it.
"Why? It's far more fun to move! Oh, almost forgot about you." Victini held up its hands and caught the grey Victini with Psychic.
"What the- What?" Twilight asked. "There are two of them now?" She looked towards Keldeo for an answer, who seemed just as confused.
"Hmm... What to do with the me that isn't me but is pretending to be me to be mean as me despite not being me." Victini looked pleased with its sentence structure for about a second before both of them got slammed into by Rainbow. Keldeo took the opportunity to run away.
"Owchie. That kinda hurt, you know." Victini dusted itself off.
The grey Victini did much of the same. "That's cheating. I don't like cheaters. BURN!" Rainbow barely avoided the Searing Shot, but now had the grey Victini chasing her, the colored one close behind.
"Just what I needed, getting chased by Pokemon smaller than a filly." Rainbow complained, trying everything she could to get them off her tail. She flew close to the ground and saw Keldeo running over, Genesect and another Pokemon close behind.
"Rainbow! Straight up, sharp turn!" Keldeo called out. She did so, and the two Victini's got caught on by Genesect's Techno Blast with Douse Drive. Genesect then lunged forward and held them both down. "Nice shot, Genesect! Now, you may be trying to use your other ability to cause Genesect to overload, but it already planned for that. All you're going to do is make it stronger by charging it up. Meloetta, do your thing." Keldeo nodded to the other Pokemon, who sat down on Genesect's shoulder.
Meloetta began to sing at a consistent pitch and volume. The colored Victini began humming the note as well, but the other one twitched and tried to escape the grip of Genesect. After a few seconds, it dissolved into a dark mist, which dissipated. Genesect let go of Victini, and Meloetta stopped singing and gave Victini a hug.
"It has been too long since I visited you, Victini." Meloetta said.
Victini struggled out of the hug, a huge grin on its face. "Agreed. Good to see you, and good to be the last me standing. Well, floating. Flying? Maybe- Eh, whatever. I'm me, that's what matters."
Applejack came over cautiously. "Is this one on our side?"
Keldeo nodded. "This is Victini, the hyperactive Victory Pokemon. You thought Mew was fun-loving, Victini exists in order to have fun and play games."
Twilight came over. "Nice to meet you, Victini. Keldeo, what did you mean when you said its other ability?"
Victini giggled. "I have unlimited energy in me, and I can share it by touching, like this!" It flew over and sat on Applejack, who shuddered for a second before running around.
"Woah! I feel like I could buck Sweet Apple Acres by hitting the ground!"
Twilight blinked to make sure she was seeing it right, then took a deep breath. "Victini, one rule."
Victini stopped flying in circles and looked at her. "Is it a game?"
Twilight nodded. "Its called the 'Don't give Pinkie Pie more energy than she already has' game. The rule is simple: Don't share your energy with Pinkie."
Victini considered. "Barring any circumstances in which it would be a good idea, sure. Who's Pinkie?" The answer then jumped out from behind Twilight.
"I'm Pinkie!"
Ponyta shook her head. "We should head to the Guild, let them know we're back."


-----------------------------------------------


Blitzle walked up to the tent with the other Pokemon. The ponies and Spike were heading to their own homes. It felt good to be able to go back home, as he always thought of it. He stepped on the grate.
"Uh... Blitzle!" Diglett called up, upon seeing the foot. "You guys are back!"
Blitze called down. "These guys are with us, don't bother checking them in."
"Oh. Okay then, come on in!" Diglett yelled up.
Blitzle led the group in, and was greeted by Lopunny. "Welcome back. I take it your mission went well?"
Ponyta nodded. "Yeah. It's good to be back, though."
Chatot smiled. "It's always good to go on a mission, and success feels even better." Bidoof and Diglett muttered in agreement.
Blitzle spoke up. "I have a few things to say. First, this is Keldeo. Second, this is Victini." He indicated the new arrivals. "Third and finally," He then Wild Charged into Diglett, shoving him against the wall. "Where's Diglett?"
Bidoof backed up. "What did you do that for? That is Diglett!"
Blitzle glared at Diglett. "You are not the Guild's guard. You are a fraud."
Diglett looked terrified. "What do you mean?"
"You hesitated when I stepped on the grate. You didn't demand that you see every single foot. Also, you were affected by Wild Charge."
Diglett's expression changed to a defeated expression. "It was worth a shot." Diglett then faded away, revealing a strange bug creature. "I give up."
> Ditto Doubles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The strange creature sighed. "You win."
Victini was, for once, not acting all happy about winning. "Don't look so sad about losing, bug-horse-swiss cheese guy. What are you, anyway?"
The creature looked surprised. "You mean, you don't know?"
Keldeo shook its head. "No, honestly. You look like a creature from this world, but you'd fit right in as a Pokemon."
The creature blinked, "You mean you're not mad at me?"
Lopunny laughed. "Oh, we are mad that Diglett isn't back, but we like to know all the facts before we really get mad. Blitzle just has a bit of a temper."
Blitzle chuckled. "Isn't that the truth. You never answered Victini's question, what are you?"
The creature stood, and was about the size of a pony. "I'm a changeling, a drone if I were to be specific. I'm really good with getting voices down, more so than most. I go by Voice Box. We changelings can appear to be anything of around our size and smaller. Like ponies, we have magic and wings, although we aren't as proficient in either as Unicorns or Pegasi. Most that know of us think that we have a hive mind or are indistinguishable. While it is true that we look very similar, our holes are unique to us and we have names and independent thought. We can feed off of most anything, but the best food source for us is love."
"How do you eat love?" Meloetta asked. "Do you suck the blood out of ponies?"
Voice Box shook her head. "No, we just absorb the love the creatures give off for others. We change into those others and absorb the love they feel for 'us'. We can't just join society because we look like this." She gestured to herself.
Chatot hopped over. "Have you ever tried?"
Voice stopped. "I... Well, that is to say... What I mean is-"
Ponta cut her off. "Save it. Let's go get the real Diglett, and see what we can do."
Despite Voice's concerns, Blitzle, Sableye, and Genesect were going to have her lead them to the other Changelings.
As they left for the Everfree, none of them noticed a flash of white fur approaching the fountain in the center of town.


---------------------------


"Hey Sableye, remember the last time we were in this forest? We were attacked by wood puppies!" Blitzle was in high spirits, despite Genesect warning him that it had an uneasy feeling of foreboding.
"We've been in here for twenty minutes. I think we're just going in circles and this is a trap." Genesect said, getting a little annoyed with the walk.
Voice Box shook her head. "Don't worry, we just need to go through these trees and- Here we are."
The Pokemon looked around. They were in a fairly large clearing, and they saw lots of Changelings all around: in trees, on the ground, on rocks, in the air. The saw several of them in a small group, and a much larger one a good ways off. That one saw them and walked over.
"Would I be correct in assuming that you got found out?" She spoke to Voice Box.
Voice tried to shrink on herself. "Yes Queen Chrysalis."
"I see. And then they made you lead them here to us?" Chrysalis spoke with a kind of subtle arrogance that made Genesect mad.
"Y-Yes, they did."
The queen sighed. "Oh well. I didn't expect that to work for very long. I just hoped that it held for longer."
"Hey Queenie." Blitle said, causing her to turn to him. "Where's Diglett?"
She gestured to the group of Changelings. "Over there. He talks on and on and keeps trying to get us to talk to him about Equestria and ourselves."
Sableye walked over to  the group, and found Diglett in the middle, telling about the Guild.
"-And then there's Chimecho. She's really nice and is a great cook and- Oh, hi Sableye. How'd you get here?"
Sableye shook her head. "We've been worried about you, as you hadn't come back yet and there was an impostor you."
Diglett looked surprised. "But I haven't been gone that long... Oh, wait, I have been. I was just so into learning about these guys and learning their feet and the feet of the other creatures here that I lost track of time."
One of the Changelings spoke up. "What kind of other creatures?"
"Well, there was a giant Sandile, and some wood Mightyena, and this giant bear guy who I may have annoyed a bit." Diglett continued thinking, but Chrysalis heard that.
"Giant bear thing? How much is 'a bit'?" She asked.
"Hmm... I think it wasn't happy that I woke it up to ask to see its feet. It roared really loud and stepped on me and left. I learned its foot though!"
Chrysalis's eyes widened. "You may have just angered an Ursa into a rampage. That bear could be headed straight for our clearing or right towards Ponyville. Normally, I would say let it be destroyed, but it is our only source of love at the moment."
Genesect's eyes flashed and it began turning. "Infrared scanner activated. Locating... Target found. Heading right to Ponyville. Suggested course of action..." Genesect grabbed Sableye and Blitzle before folding up. "Beat it there." Genesect then took off. Without another word, Diglett dug into the ground and shot through the forest. Chrysalis sighed.
"I suppose we must help them if they dare to fight the beast. Hopefully, it is merely an Ursa Minor so that we may stand a chance."


---------------------------


Victini and Meloetta left the Guild to wander the town. "What a pretty fountain." Meloetta said.
Victini pointed. "Not for long. Look what's on it!"
Meloetta looked up and saw an imposing figure. It was mostly white, and looked sort of like a dog, if not for the blade coming out of its forehead. "An Absol? That cannot be good news." They saw a rainbow trail go overhead, and Victini flew up to the head of it.
"What's the rush?"
"An Ursa Minor just came through the Everfree. It looks mad and it's headed right for Ponyville! I need to let Twilight know!" Rainbow sounded like she was in trouble if she didn't tell her 20 seconds ago, so Victini let her continue.
Victini flew back to Meloetta. "Big bear thingy from the forest is on a rampage."
Meloetta looked at Absol. "Is the the disaster?" Absol nodded, and ran towards the forest.
Victini turned to Meloetta. "Warn the Guild, I'll try and hold it off." Victini sped off after Absol to face the giant beast.


---------------------------


Deoxys sat in front of a statue of an interesting figure. Nearby, a white pony and a black pony watched.
"You are an interesting fellow. Spirit of Disharmony, representation of Chaos. Why do you see others as mere playthings? Do you not know that it would be more fun with them enjoying themselves too? ... Do I know? No, I do not. I do not really have friends. I am mostly alone."
The white turned to the black. "Deoxys hasn't left that spot since it first sat down. I'm starting to get worried that it has been controlled by Discord."
The black shook her head. "I doubt that, sister. Jirachi has given its word that Deoxys is difficult to mind control."
The white considered. "Still, I wonder... How did these Pokemon get here? Could Discord have had a hand in it?"
The image faded, leaving the watcher alone. "Little do they know he did have a hand, but I was the one who loosened the boundaries between worlds after he began. I sent the first few arrivals and he that this will work in his favor. They will not like my misleading of them, but it is of the essence that it is kept secret until I know that they are what I need. That is why I sent Mew there, and sent Deoxys and Jirachi to space near the planet. I need all the pieces in place. If this works, it could cause our... issues to be dealt with. If it fails, then there may be some trouble for all of you. You understand my concern?"
Another creature, much larger than the first, nodded. "Yes. In my domain, I keep watch over it as you have asked me to for many eons. It is becoming more powerful, the Bittercold and the Shadow Pokemon, especially XD-001 have proven it. The cards were dealt in our favor, as one of its own will likely be the way we can finally be rid of it. For now, I suggest watching how it all plays out."
The first nodded. "Agreed. I will come if 'Discord' becomes a larger threat than can be handled, but I would rather not have to. It has already played its cards, using its creation to cause a distraction while it shattered the Prism. Now it is my turn, and I do not intend on letting it go to waste. Keep me informed of any major developments, and ask your brothers to help figure out what happened to Zekrom and Reshiram."
> Star Bears are Bad News
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Victini flew past Absol to see just what an Ursa Minor was. It was greeted by a massive bear, with partially see-through bluish-purple fur and body. "Woah! That thing's far larger than a Wailord!" Victini came to a stop about a hundred feet away from it. Victini had to move backwards to maintain the distance. Victini noticed Absol come to a stop nearby to look at the massive creature. "That Ursa looks mad. As in, really mad."
Absol looked up at Victini. "How mad is really mad?" Absol was being sarcastic, but Victini didn't catch it.
"I'd say destroy the town mad. Maybe it just woke up on the wrong side of the-" A roar that would give even Exploud a run for its money both cut it off and sent it backward. "-cave?"
Absol got into a fighting position. "New plan: Don't let it reach town."
Victini started to get scared. "Easier said than done. I can't even get into its head, so no mental communication. Have a better plan than hit it until it leaves?"
Absol responded by running toward the Ursa. He leaped backwards when he got close, firing off Razor Wind. The attack hit, but had no effect on the Ursa. Growling, Absol used Quick Attack to get in close, and hit it with Night Slash. Rather, Absol sliced his sickle-like headpiece against the bear and it bounced off. Absol didn't even have the time to register the disbelief before it got swatted away by the Ursa Minor. Victini's eyes widened.
"Okay... My turn." Victini fired off Searing Shot, and when that did nothing it used Fire Blast and then Overheat. It heard the Guild running over to see what was going on, and Twilight teleported over as well.
"When Meloetta said Ursa Minor, I thought big bear. Can anything affect this thing?" Chatot was sounding legitimately scared. "We need to stop it from destroying the town, but we don't have enough room to try everything!"
Victini took a deep breath. "Absol couldn't do anything with Razor Wind or Night Slash, and my special attacks are doing nothing to it except possibly making it more angry." A loud roar confirmed that it was unharmed.
Twilight was shaking her head. "Ursa Minors have thick fur, but even beyond that they have a large resistance to pretty much anything that could harm them. I was able to get one to leave because it was a baby, but this one seems to be between Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. I don't think I can get it to leave by babying it. I don't know if we can get it to leave."
Lopunny thought for a second. "Can we hit it around?" When she saw the confused looks she clarified. "If we hit it hard enough, could we knock it back?"
Twilight considered. "i suppose that would work. You'd need to hit it really hard to even make it possible, but its worth a shot."
Lopunny nodded. "Good. Here's my plan. Chatot, you should-"
Victini interrupted. "One more shot." Without waiting for protests, Victini began to fly towards the Ursa. As it approached, its head ignited and the flames extended past its ears, making a flaming V in front of Victini's head.
Keldeo took a step forwards. "Sweet Arceus... I've never seen this attack, but I know what it is."
Chatot turned to it. "Are you going to share that information with the rest of us?"
Keldeo nodded. "Aside from a boosted Fusion Flare, that is the single strongest Fire-type move. That is V-Create."
Victini slammed into the Ursa's head at insanely high speeds, and the Ursa was knocked onto its back. Victini tumbled backward due to the collision, but it had far more control. It flew back towards the others grinning. "It worked! I have a headache, but it worked!"
Meloetta smiled. "Tell them that, and perhaps we will win this fight." It was then that Genesect landed with Blitzle and Sableye, with Diglett popping up next to them. Queen Chrysalis and many of her changelings also landed, and Sableye had to prevent Twilight from yelling at them.
"What are they doing here?" Twilight asked Sableye, glaring.
"They need to live too. Ponyville is where they can get enough love to survive, so they are helping." Sableye assured Twilight.
Keldeo transformed into its Resolute Form. "Here's the plan. Hit the bear hard enough and it gets pushed back. Hit it enough and hopefully it will leave."
Genesect turned to the Ursa and bent down, bracing its hands and feet into the ground. "Techno Blast ready. I will fire to hit at the same time you do."
Chatot nodded to Absol, who had managed to come back. "Good. All of us are to hit it with everything we can, preferably attacks that would push the Ursa back."
Blitzle looked to Ponyta. "I really want to be able to do that thing we did against Raichu now. Heck, I wish I even knew what that was."
"Isn't that the truth." Ponyta agreed.
What are your ideals?
Blitzle looked around wildly. "Who said that? I've heard you before, who or what are you?"
Bidoof poked Blitzle. "Are you okay? Ponyta was just agreeing with you."
Do you desire the truth?
Ponyta looked around too. "About what?"
Diglett looked at her. "Do you do this often?"
What is it that would be best?
Blitzle stopped looking around and took a deep breath. "It would be best if the Ursa would leave, by its accord or by us driving it off."
Strike it hard, Blitzle, and unleash my power.
Blitzle turned to the Ursa, and began sparking. "Rush it on my mark. Genesect, you and everyone else hit it with whatever power you can put behind a magic blast. Got it?" Keldeo, Lopunny, Victini, Absol, Ponyta, and Bidoof nodded. Genesect, Twilight, Chrysalis and the changelings all lined up and got ready to fire. "Ready? One, Two, THREE!" Blitzle was the only one who didn't run, as he knew he could catch up. He began running, and his Wild Charge was picking up electricity. He heard a bang, and he suddenly tripled in speed and his Wild Charge electricity snapped blue. He collided with the Ursa along with all the others, and then saw Techno Blast and all the magic bolts slam into the Ursa. It went backwards, roared, and then turned and lumbered back into the Everfree.
Keldeo shook its head. "We... We did it." Everyone sighed with relief or cheered.
"Alright. Now to figure out what you're doing." Twilight turned to Chrysalis, who attempted not to look bothered by the unicorn.
"My hive needs to feed, and I was helping protect our food source. Specifically, your town. You may not understand it, as you've always had food and other ponies to rely on, but I am the queen of the changelings, so it is my duty to make sure we get food. As our primary food source is impossible to come by in the wild, I needed to do what I could to assure our survival. As our appearance is off-putting, we wouldn't be accepted into society. Therefore, I had to seize a position where my hive could get sustenance. Our issue arose when you saw through my disguise, ruining my plan to feed my hive. Before and after then we have had to hope that we could survive off of what we could manage. This forest and your town have been mostly stable sources of food." Chrysalis explained, walking towards Twilight and pushing her back.
Meloetta looked confused. "How is your appearance off putting? You look fine to me. Hey, why didn't you ask someone for help? I was told that there were two nice princesses in the castle way over there, why don't you ask them? Too far to fly?"
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "Yes, because going to the ponies in charge of the country I tried to force my way into is definitely not going to result in a bad idea."
"Why not have Twilight write her a letter saying that you come in peace and want to talk?" Ponyta asked. "It would be the best way, and I truthfully can't see an issue with it."
"I can. The disguise she mentioned was her pretending to be my brother's now wife and she was planning on taking over Equestria." Twilight said bluntly.
Chatot looked more than a little surprised and angry, but Bidoof talked over him. "That was the past. She wouldn't do that if she had a source of love."
Twilight glared at Bidoof. "What if she does it again? She's proven that she will, and I can't write to Princess Celestia and not be worried about-"
Blitzle coughed. She looked over, and saw Blitzle's rather angry face. "What if I steal everything in town worth money? I've proven I will, so why do you put up with me?"
Twilight was taken aback. "When would you have-"
"Thunderclap, remember?" Blitzle smirked.
Twilight sighed. "Alright. If you all are so sure it's a good idea, i'll go write the letter and send it out."
Chatot nodded. "Okay."
Blitzle headed towards the Everfree. "We're going to need wood for the campfire Friday. I'm going to go get some." He headed off, but didn't get into the forest before a blade sliced the ground in front of him. He looked at Keldeo. "Really? What is it?"
Keldeo walked next to him. "Talk. How did you do that?"
"No idea what you mean." Blitzle honestly answered.
"The Ursa. You hit it with a move that you cannot perform. How?"
"No clue. You said counter was a move you couldn't learn, so why is it that a move I can't is scary?"
Keldeo went in front of him. "Because you used a legendary Pokemon's signature move. Specifically, Zekrom's Bolt Strike. This is the second time you've done one of its moves, the first being against Raichu. That time, you used its Fusion Bolt, and Ponyta used Reshiram's Fusion Flare. How are you doing that? The only other Pokemon other than them that could do it are Arceus, Mew, and Victini."
"I told you. I do not know." Blitzle walked past Keldeo, leaving it behind to try and figure out what was going on with the Trailblazers.
> Special Episode: Exploring Adventurers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Hey Ninj, how do you think these new guys are holding up?" A shiny Frogadier gestured to four Pokemon ahead of them.
The Ninjask shot to his leader's other side, then returned to his first spot. "Hmm... the Skitty has proven to be a bad listener, but has enough battle instincts to make up for trying rush in without waiting for our experience in battle unknown threats. The Shinx is obviously the brains of the group, but isn't a fast enough thinker to be able to improvise in battle. Girafarig isn't quite as able to make perfect plans, but utilizes her affinity for status and healing moves to keep her whole team together. The Vulpix is far too quiet to get a good read on, but her flames are more powerful than even many high leveled fire-types, but she is extraordinarily inaccurate. I still cannot believe that Wigglytuff would allow them out on missions without more training."
Frogadier laughed. "Just like how Team Shadoweye thought we would never catch that Graveler criminal?"
Ninj did his best to growl, but could only create a buzzing. "Shut it, Shade."
Farther ahead, the Shinx and a Kecleon were discussing strategies. "Say that you saw a Haunter, a Gloom, and a Pikachu. You knew you had to fight them, but they didn't know you were coming. What would you plan to do?"
The Shinx laughed. "I'd go for Haunter with Bite, have Velvet go for the Gloom with her fire, and have Silver go for Pikachu. Ally would help Velvet with her Psychic attacks, but would be support for the whole team, as well as keep two pairs of eyes out for a forth member or an ambush."
Kecleon shook his head. "Unbelievable. 20 plans that all would work for different scenarios. You're crazy good, Shadow."
Shadow grinned. "Thanks Stripe, that means a lot. Out of curiosity, where did Mist go?"
Stripe looked around. "Ahead. He said he was going to see if there was a town nearby." A rock landed in the middle of the group, halting conversation. It then melted away to reveal a Zoroark, proving that the rock was an illusion.
"I was getting worried. Find anything of interest?" The Girafarig asked, hopefully.
Vulpix sighed. "I hope so. We need a good place to rest."
Skitty smirked. "Getting tired, Velvet?"
Velvet looked over. "A little. Silver, aren't you getting tired?"
Silver shook her head, but then yawned. "Yeah. I can't let myself fall asleep, though. I need to keep an eye out in case we get attacked or something."
Mist pointed up the path. "There's a city up ahead with this giant castle in it. Further investigation required, but the inhabitants seem friendly due to how they interact with each other."
Shade chuckled. "If they aren't, we fight our way out and keep going. Not even a city can keep all eight of us down. Let's go!" With those words of encouragement, the group continued down the path along the mountain.


------------------------------


"Hey, Gardevoir, calm down. Lopunny is fine. She's always fine." Medicham was comforting her teammate. "Team AWD has confirmed that no Pokemon had gone to Zero Isle, and we both know Lopunny can handle herself anywhere."
The miserable Psychic type looked over. "That isn't why I'm crying. I know that Lopunny can handle herself. She was able to make us a team, after all. I feel the emotions of every Pokemon around me, which is all of Treasure Town. You feel it too, but not as much due to Gardevoir having a stronger connection to emotions. It's... draining."
Medicham nodded. "I forgot you do that. Come on, we're going to a Mystery Dungeon."
Gardevoir looked confused. "Why would we do that? Is there a mission?"
Medicham laughed. "Yeah: Keep Wigglytuff busy while Sunflora, Loudred, and Dugtrio get some Perfect Apples, as well as get you out of Town for a while."
Gardevoir considered. "All right. Let's go. Besides, we may find something cool for the campfire."


------------------------------


At what appeared to be the remains of an ancient temple atop a mountain, a meeting was taking place. Some of the smaller beings were seated on broken columns, while the larger ones stood around the meeting. A white quadruped was standing on an insignia near the middle. When it began to talk, all the other beings quieted down.
"I believe you all wish to know why I required a meeting here." After getting assorted noises of agreement, the being continued. "It has to do with the missing Pokemon. To put all confusion to rest: I am the reason that many Pokemon are missing."
At this, many of the beings began yelling. A blue quadruped with yellow horns looked furious. "You mean to tell me that our student went missing because of you AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US?"
The white being turned to face the speaker. "I said I was the reason, not that I sent all of them. You might be pleased to know that your student is doing fine. It has taken command when faced with assorted threats, and has not failed to be able to identify an attack or come up with plans of attack even if the situation does not require it. You've trained it well. To put another fear to rest, no Pokemon has been seriously or permanently harmed upon arrival, although some have tried to push themselves too far in an attempt to remain in control of a situation."
A small green bush-like creature jumped off its column to be seen. "Uh, if you weren't the reason for all of them, what was?"
A large gray insect-like serpentine dragon stepped forward. "Perhaps I can answer this. I have been asked not to be truly specific, however a powerful entity plans to rip our universe apart. In doing so, it plans to cause distractions as it frees itself from its metaphorical prison."
The white creature spoke up then. "Planned. Past tense. It is already free, however it needs to gather its strength in order to complete its plan. Unfortunately, it has already succeeded in a way to prevent me from facing it directly."
A yellow tiger-like being yawned. "So you want us to go fight it for you?"
The white being's voice boomed. "Absolutely NOT! It has already taken over the Pokeparks and both broke and drained the Sky Prism. This brings me to the other reason I called this meeting. You are ALL to do one of the following tasks: Take, by any means, the fourteen attractions that the prism pieces went to, and guard them, keep all the zones safe and calm so the Pokemon do not rip the Pokeparks apart from within, or guard the entrances to Wish Park and do not let any beings into OR out of it. With one exception, you may choose your own jobs, other than the Wish Park guarding."
A feline-like biped with a long purple tail scoffed. "Don't want to be that Pokemon."
The white being chuckled. "Sorry. I feel you are the most up to the task. Your job is to hand pick at least three others to help you guard the four entrances into wish park. The reason is that Wish Park has become a place where anger and a desire to harm all others are all that there is. I feel that, due to your experiences with pure malice directed towards other creatures, you would not only be most able to fight the effects but also most capable of finding others who can help. Do you accept?"
"One question: Do my cohorts need to be other Pokemon? Because I have a human in mind that would be perfect for the task."
The white being shook its head. "You have no restrictions on what you can and cannot hire. Get to work, all of you. I am going to keep an eye on our other planet."
As it created a portal to go through, a deep voice spoke. "Questions." The white being looked at the speaker, a giant white biped. "What is the purpose for the world you chose in this plan you seem to have, and what is the reason we are to maintain the pieces of the Sky Prism instead of fixing it?"
The white being nodded. "A fair question, but both have one answer. Friendship. The other planet - or at least, the part the Pokemon are on - has most of its society based around it. It is also what powers the Sky Prism. How many of you can make friends with others? Of those who can, who would be able to try to do so with Pokemon who would rather fight you and you would need to talk down? Not enough of you. That is my reasoning." It then floated through the portal it made.
> The Radio Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"You dare fight me?" Victini flew into the air and circled Keldeo. "Your blade is too dull to cut apples, so why think it can hurt me?"
Keldeo narrowed its eyes. "I'm going to beat you, Victini!"
Victini sighed loudly. "Cut! Pause! Stop! Halt! Do not proceed!" It flew down to the very confused Keldeo. "What was that?"
"Me preparing to fight you?" Keldeo didn't know the answer, or even the question.
"Not that. Well, yes that but not quite that. Blitzle, do you know what that was?" Victini called to the onlooker, who ran over.
Blitzle laughed. "Not sure myself. Did the Swords of Justice fail to teach you banter?"
Keldeo looked between the two Pokemon. "What's banter?"
Victini groaned. "I'll be right back. Blitzle, teach Keldeo what banter is."
Blitzle watched Victini fly off before turning back to Keldeo. "Banter is what it is called when, before and during a fight, you exchange snarks at each other. Victini bantered you with the sword comment, and you responded badly."
Keldeo shrugged. "The Swords taught me fighting."
"Banter is a bit of an underhanded tactic depending on the situation, but usually is just amusing. The point of a good banter is to get under your opponent's skin and get them mad. When angry, you tend to fight more predictably, with more power and less thought."
Keldeo nodded. "Okay. How do you do a so-called good banter?"
Blitzle smiled. "Great question. Puns are always good, and alliteration, if used well, can be hilariously effective. The best banter is one that directly hits your foe. Make a joke about their weapon, name, ability, something they are proud of. Here comes Rainbow Dash. She can banter, so let's get her down here."
Unbeknownst to the two on the ground, Rainbow was already coming down to them with Victini. "Hey guys! Heard you needed some help with banter!"
Keldeo groaned. "Does everyone know how to banter but me?"
Victini laughed. "Don't be silly. Us three, however, do know how to use it effectively. Let's give some examples, shall we?"
Blitzle smirked. "Whatever you say, Losstini."
Victini gasped, looked mad for a second, and then began chuckling. "I didn't see that coming. That was pretty funny."
Rainbow was laughing too. "Good one, Slowpoke!"
Blitzle growled. "Thanks, Snailbow Dash."
Rainbow and Blitzle began arguing about who is the faster of the two until Victini got between them. "Race later, banter now. Keldeo, you remember the old Zubatman cartoons I showed you?"
Keldeo nodded. "The one with Adam East? Yeah."
Victini pointed at Keldeo. "The alliterations he used were banter. Try some of those."
Keldeo thought for a moment. "I'll wrangle you, you rambunctious rabbit! Is that good?"
Victini shrugged. "Great for a first try. I want you to be able to have at least five words alliterated by the campfire, alright?"
"Only five?" Keldeo asked. "I have a few days."
Victini humphed. "Would you rather it be a minimum of seven?"
"No, no. Five is fine." Keldeo answered quickly.


--------------------------------


After a couple of days, it was time for another campfire. Pinkie used it as an excuse to throw a pre-campfire-mini-party, only smaller than her usual ones in duration and snacks. She claimed she didn't want any pony to lose their appetite or be too tired for the campfire, but she was obviously disappointed. Meloetta had gotten a hold of a guitar somehow, and was tuning it against its own voice during the party. None of the attendees knew it could play, and it told them it learned in honor of a friend. At the campfire, it became a background noise during stories and conversations, and played along to songs. After a story about Lopunny, Wigglytuff, and a Perfect Apple, Meloetta stopped playing and cleared its throat. It looked around before resting its gaze just past the snack table.
"You have 5 seconds to drop the illusion and start explaining yourself before I unleash my Relic Song." It said, leveling a glare at the spot.
A Zoroark came into view. "I was discovering the source of noise and smoke. I am from Team Sneaky, and we were with Team Cascade. We were told to come here by Mew, a legendary Pokemon. Being the Guild's top recon teams due to being very hard to both find and catch made us a little suspicious about things being too easy. Seeing as how Chatot is here, I will go get the other Pokemon." She turned and fired a Shadow Ball into the air. After a couple of seconds other Pokemon came into view and began to socialize to varying degrees. The Vulpix stayed close to the Skitty, and silently got a bit of food before sitting down by the fire. The Shinx went over to Chatot and spoke excitedly, while Girafarig was spoken to by Victini. Ninjask stayed near Frogadier, Kecleon sat by Sableye, and Zoroark went over by Twilight. Lopunny asked Meloetta to start playing a song for her, explaining that Meloetta could just read her mind to pick up the tune. Meloetta gave her a grin, and began to play.


--------------------------------


Spinda passed around smoothies for all, and the campfire began. Wigglytuff was in the middle of telling an amusing story involving him, a Beedrill, and a bunch of Meowth when Gardevoir asked him to stop.
"Sorry... I just... I don't know, but I thought I heard something." She sighed. "Oh well."
Medicham shook her head. "No, wait... I hear it too. Sounds familiar."
Wigglytuff giggled. "Then sing along so we know what it is!"
Gardevoir nodded. "Once we know what it is, sure."


--------------------------------


Meloetta began to play, and Lopunny began to sing.


I was tryin' to find my way home
But all I heard was a drone
Bouncing off a satellite
Crushin' the last lone American night


Gardevoir heard a voice and recognized it immediately, and joined in.


This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?


Lopunny heard another voice, so she stopped to listen.


I was spinnin' 'round a dead dial
Just another lost number in a file
Dancin' down a dark hole
Just searchin' for a world with some soul


Medicham caught on, and joined in with Gardevoir.


This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?


Meloetta took over the next part, and its voice was heard not just in Ponyville, but also in Treasure Town.


I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm


Wigglytuff took the next part, cutting off Medicham.


I want a thousand guitars
I want pounding drums
I want a million different voices speaking in tongues


Lopunny, Medicham, and Gardevoir sung together, not knowing how they could do it when separated. They didn't care.


This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?


During the instrumental break, a spacial rift began to open in both towns. All were surprised, but Meloetta refused to stop playing. As they continued, the portal became stronger and more stable.


I was driving through the misty rain
Yeah searchin' for a mystery train
Boppin' through the wild blue
Tryin' to make a connection with you

This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?

I just want to feel some rhythm
I just want to feel some rhythm
I just want to feel your rhythm
I just want to feel your rhythm
I just want to feel your rhythm
I just want to feel your rhythm
I just want to feel your rhythm
I just want to feel your rhythm


When the song finished, Lopunny scrambled over to the portal to her team. "Girls! You're okay!"
Medicham laughed. "Of course we're okay! Are you okay?"
Lopunny smiled, tears of joy running down her face. "Absolutely."
Wigglytuff walked over to the portal. "Hmm... A spacial anomaly linking two different locations that chose to appear now... strange."
Chatot flew over to the portal. "Guild master! All of us are okay and ready to return home."
Wigglytuff shook his head. "No. This sort of thing doesn't just happen. We must have a presence on that world in case we are needed there. After all, if it turns out that nothing happens and you being there is all just random chance, Gardevoir can always teleport you all back."
Gardevoir looked at Wigglytuff, who was behind her and Medicham. "I don't mean to burst your bubble, but I'm here. I can teleport others, but only alongside myself."
Wigglytuff then got one of those grins of his that show that him being so 'out there' is just a facade and that he is far smarter than he lets on. "I am fully aware of how teleport works."
Medicham turned to look at Wigglytuff. "Then how can Gardevoir teleport them?"
"Like this!" Wigglytuff then shoved Gardevoir and Medicham through the portal. They ended up in a pile on Lopunny, but before they could get up Pinkie leaped on the pile with a cry of 'Pony Pile!'
Twilight lifted Pinkie off of Team Charm as she approached the portal. "It appears to have a similar magical frequency to the Elements. I think the Magic of Harmony and Meloetta's connection to music and singing used the connection between Lopunny and her friends to link our two towns." The portal fluctuated quite a bit.
Wigglytuff nodded. "Following that theory, the fact that Team Charm is now all there means that this portal should close. Keep things happy over there, Rescue Teams!" The portal closed itself before any more words could be spoken.
Lopunny sighed. "Oh Wigglytuff, always making things more... interesting, we'll call it. How about I show you two around?"
As the trio wandered off, Keldeo poked Victini. "I got it! Your rambunctious rampage of recreational randomness is about to be wrangled in, you rascally rabbit of ridicule!"
"Did you just banter me by telling me that I banter?" Victini asked.
"... maybe."
Victini cracked a smile. "Good job Keldeo."
> Racing in the Wind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Okay Rainbow, before we do this, let's make one thing very clear. If I was my normal speed, I wouldn't be able to keep up with you at all, so this race is between you and magically faster me. Got it?" Blitzle and Rainbow were at the entrance of Ghastly Gorge, planning on racing through to see who was faster. They wanted to make sure that all rules and issues were good before they started.
Rainbow nodded. "Right. This course can be dangerous, so if either of us get stuck or hurt the race will stop immediately. Is there anything we may need to handle before we go?"
"Let's see... Genesect is escorting Chrysalis to Canterlot so she doesn't get attacked on her way to try to negotiate a peace for the changelings with Celestia, Spike got a letter confirming the meeting so Celestia knows that she is coming, Darkrai came in to speak with Victini, and Keldeo is helping Applejack and her family harvest their apples."
"I finished my shift on weather patrol for the day, so I have nothing happening today."
"Great." Blitzle sparked up for a second, before going to the start line they  drew in the ground. "Ready?"
Rainbow flew down next to him. "Ready! On your mark..."
Blitzle pawed the ground. "Get set..."
Both of them rushed forward yelling "Go!"
The pair sped through the Gorge, avoiding all obstacles in their path. Rainbow had an early lead, but Blitzle was quicker to round corners despite the knee-high water and was able to close the gap. The Windy Cave caused Rainbow slightly more trouble than the grounded Blitzle, but the Cactus Field slowed Blitzle down quite a bit. The Quarry Eels caused neither of them trouble, and they had just passed the rock pile Rainbow had made last time she had raced through when a massive blast of wind sent them both tumbling backwards.
Blitzle shook his head. "Well, that wasn't supposed to happen."
Rainbow groaned. "Really? What gave you that idea?"
Blitzle ignored her. "Based on the force of the wind and direction it came from, I'd guess we can overtake whatever it is, especially if I can zap it."
Rainbow got back on her hooves. "What are we waiting for then? Let's go!"


-----------------------------------------


The pair looked everywhere for what had caused such a windstorm, but they ended up finding nothing.
"Unbelievable! Absolutely nothing! No windswept trees, no unnaturally blown fields, no sign of anything!" Blitzle was getting agitated. "Maybe it was just a freak breeze."
Rainbow sighed for a moment, but then got excited. "You said that Darkrai was in town? Well, why don't we have him try and go through our memories?"
Blitzle considered. They were right by the Guild, and Darkrai should have no reason to say no. "Alright, let's go check."


-----------------------------------------


"I can give no promises that this will work. Dreams, while based off of memories, are not always exact. I may be able to enter your subconscious and directly see your memories, but I do not promise on success. A Psychic type would have a higher chance of success, but I will see what I can do." Darkrai floated over to the pair. "Are you sure you wish to do this? I warn you, I will bring nightmares."
Blitzle and Rainbow nodded, and both got themselves into a comfortable position.
Darkrai nodded. "Very well. Dark Void." It shot two inkblot-like bolts of darkness, one at each racer. A sphere of pure darkness circled them briefly, and they fell asleep. "Let's see just what we have here..." Darkrai melted into shadow and into Rainbow.


-----------------------------------------


Darkrai looked around the dream. It was a racetrack, with a race starting. It noticed Rainbow and Blitzle, as well as several other ponies it didn't recognize. It saw trees start blowing in the wind that hadn't reached them yet and flew up to try and see what was causing it. Darkrai slowed down everything around it and saw a green blur slowly go by.
"Expected. There was little way that she could have gotten the details of what it was, but the fact that she got green and a vague shape is very good." Darkrai then proceeded to laugh. "Oh, this is good. I know exactly who it was."


-----------------------------------------


Darkrai woke up Rainbow and Blitzle. "Well? What caused this supposed ruckus?" Victini flew from one side of Darkrai to the other."
Darkrai nodded. "I not only am aware of what it looked like, but I know who it was."
Rainbow almost jumped onto Darkrai. "Well? What was it?"
Darkrai pushed her back. "There is no way that, even at such a high speed, anything could make enough wind to blow the two of you back unless it made wind under itself in order to mess with you two. In order for anything to do that, it would need to not only be able to make high-powered wind, it would also need to be able to move fast enough to get away from you two and be able to see down below it. There are few Pokemon who can do it, but only one is my size and green."
Victini giggled. "You had a run-in with Tornadus. It is such a prankster."
Blitzle thought. "Tornadus? Didn't Keldeo mention it?"
Rainbow nodded. "Yeah! They know must know each other."
Darkrai began to leave. "I will take my leave now. You shouldn't have too much trouble finding it." Before the others could ask what Darkrai meant, it left.
Victini sighed. "Whatever that means. Darkrai knows something we don't."
Then they heard the wind.
The three ran out of the Guild along with the rest of the Guild and found a windstorm in town. No buildings were being blown around, but everypony and everything was being blown around. Rainbow would have been blown away if Skuntank hadn't grabbed her and pulled her down. "You're not going anywhere. Blitzle!" Blitzle looked over. "Chatot and the rest of my team are still in the Guild, as are some others who I caught. Don't worry about them, try and electrocute that thing causing this wind!"
Blitzle nodded. He wasn't getting blown around too much by the wind as he braced himself, but he didn't know if he could hit it. "I'll see." He used Thunderbolt repeatedly, missing the first few shots but hitting the fifth. The wind immediately stopped and the green being that they thought was on a cloud flew down to them.
"Well what do we have here? Some grounded Pokemon, a Chatot, and a Pegasus. Perhaps I have found the correct place. Tell me, do any of you know a Pokemon known as..." Tornadus stopped talking as it saw another Pokemon behind Blitzle. "Victini! How long has it been?"
"A month and a half." Victini grumbled. "It should be three weeks, but SOMEONE didn't deliver my stuff on time."
"Your order was boring and not worth my time." Tornadus said.
"I live in a lighthouse and my room is locked to almost all visitors! My entertainment deliveries are worth your time, Landorus said so!" Victini complained. "I have millions of viewers on my streams! I need to keep them happy!"
"You play video games and invariably win! How is that enjoyable to watch?" Tornadus complained.
"Just because I win doesn't mean I perfect run when I'm not trying to and doesn't mean that it's boring or that everyone else loses." Victini glared at Tornadus. "I promised to play that new fighting game, but not only did it not arrive on time, I'm not at home to play it!"
Tornadus sighed. "Fine, fine, I'm sorry. Has Keldeo been around here?"
Blitzle nodded. "Yeah. You looking for it?"
Tornadus shook its head. "Looking for where it has been. Its been here, so I'm in the right place."
Chatot flew over. "For what?"
Tornadus smirked. "For finding the missing Pokemon, or many of them. Not that I chose to be here, but while I'm here I figured I could have some fun."
Rainbow glared. "You have fun by causing a tornado in a town  and in interrupting a race?"
Tornadus nodded. "Absolutely. I used to have fun in being far more destructive, but that notion was... beaten out of me, so to speak."
Skuntank stopped the argument early. "Well, its good to know that we have some more Pokemon here to figure out what's been going on."
Victini sighed. "It knows, but it won't tell, right?" Tornadus nodded. "Figures. Hopefully no disasters happen while we're here that we have to deal with."


-----------------------------------------


"Please explain to me how only you having fun is better than others having fun as well."
"I would have less fun for the ponies to enjoy my chaos."
"But the total amount of enjoyment will be exponentially larger. The math doesn't add up."
"It does to me. They are my playthings."
"Playthings that have defeated you repeatedly because, to them, you are a menace to society."
"But they're wrong."
"Have you ever considered that they have feelings and wants and needs as well?"
"Well, no, but-"
"Then how can you be sure they are right?"
Destroy them all.
"Excuse me?"
"Ooh, another visitor to my head. Who might you be?"
Hmm... this is a good place to stop. I believe that I will stay here for a short while.
"That's very rude of you to stop in my head and fail to introduce yourself. Isn't that right, Deoxys?"
"It is... from your head... frozen in place... can't... do not... out..."
"What does that even mean?"
It means I have taken control, and once I have gathered my strength, I will destroy everything.
> Special Episode: Crystalline Craziness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Genesect walked through Canterlot, ignoring the rocks and dirty looks thrown at it. It expected worse, if it was to be honest. It looked strange, had glowing red eyes, a cannon on its back, and had recently walked through Canterlot with Chrysalis. It wasn't surprised or angry about it, merely disappointed. It may be a living weapon, but it didn't like being despised. When it arrived at the train station, it was surprised to see Twilight and her friends along with Keldeo.
Keldeo walked over. "Come on. We have a meeting to attend to. Twilight has a test to take, and her friends..."
Twilight finished. "Are here as moral support and to hang out in Canterlot after the test."
Keldeo nodded. "That. If we're being called into a meeting, it can't be good. Come on."


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As the three approached the throne room, the door opened and Mew and Princess Luna came out. Twilight went in, and Mew closed the door. "Come with us, you two."
Keldeo and Genesect followed. "What do you need?" Genesect asked.
Luna sighed. "The Crystal Empire has returned. That doesn't mean much to you, but King Sombra has returned as well."
"Darkrai described something that fits Sombra's description." Mew added. "Unfortunately, as Darkrai looks similar to Sombra, it cannot help you."
Keldeo nodded. "So it's just us. What are we doing?"
"You two are to help Twilight in any way that she requires." Luna said. "Sombra will try to retake the Crystal Empire, but this cannot happen. You two are fighters above all else, and while Sombra's dark magic outclasses the Royal Guard, you may be able to find a way past his magic."
Mew floated onto Genesect's shoulder. "Few more things: Sombra is now some kind of dark cloud thing, his dark magic is very powerful, and you'll meet up with another up there who can help you."
Genesect started to respond, but Luna cut him off. "There is already somepony up there?"
Mew nodded. "Yup. It was probably why Sombra couldn't get into the Empire immediately. Clouds can't pass through solid walls, can they? Doesn't matter. Go down to the train station and wait for Twilight there."


-----------------------------------------------------------------


"What's your take on all this?" Keldeo whispered to Genesect. They had gone to the other side of the train car from the others in order to discuss what they would need to do.
"We should have gotten more backup. If Sombra is as strong as they said, we have a 6% chance of beating him in a fight, a 9% chance of forcing a stalemate, but a 48% chance of being able to hold him off for 2 minutes or less." Genesect said. "Correction: based on what Mew said, 74% chance of 2 minutes or more. A solid wall can be made of ice."
Keldeo nodded. "Good point. He sounds like he has an ego the size of a Wailord, so we may be able to bait him using it. If I can keep his attention, you could freeze around him with your Douse and Chill Drives, or Hydro Pump and Ice Beam. I really want to know who our mystery backup is."
They continued the discussion for as long as Pinkie let them before dragging them into the discussion of what the Empire looks like, what kind of parties they would like, and the proper way to build a snowman. Before too long the train stopped and they all got off. Shining Armor was there waiting for them.
"Shining Armor, a pleasure to see you again." Keldeo said, nodding towards him.
Shining Armor grinned. "Glad you all made it, but we really need to get moving. There are things you really don't want to run into after dark."
Genesect's eyes flashed. "Unidentified cloud going against the wind. We go immediately." It then picked up Rarity and Fluttershy. "You two are the slowest runners. Move!" They all took off running, Genesect, Shining Armor, and Keldeo glancing back every so often.
Shining Armor slowed down and turned around. "I'll hold him off for now. Get to the Empire!" He shot magic at Sombra, who was unaffected. Sombra closed in on Shining Armor, planning on getting rid of this nuisance who kept freezing him out.
Sombra got Shining Armor's horn, but Shining Armor was frozen solid before he could do anything else. A being that seemed to be made of Crystals made another wall of ice and got Shining Armor away from Sombra. Sombra began going over the ice wall, but knew that this being had prevented his return to his Crystal Empire again. "You..."
Farther ahead, the rest of the group enter the Crystal Empire and start catching their breath. Twilight notices that her brother isn't there and turns around to leave when his frozen form is pushed through the barrier, followed by a being standing taller than Genesect or Gardevoir. It seemed to be made of blue crystals, and had seven yellow dots in the shape of a plus sign on its face. "What did you do to my brother?"
The dots flashed in some pattern. "I froze him. Prevent further curse. Not fast enough for full prevention."
Genesect used flamethrower to begin melting the ice while Keldeo walked over to the being. "So you're the one Mew was talking about."
The dots flashed. "Affirmative. Ordered to help."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Thanks for offering, but what are you?"
Keldeo grinned. "This is the Golem of Ice, the Iceberg Pokemon Regice."
Shining Armor was finally thawed, and he took a deep breath and sighed. "Sombra wasn't even phased by my magic. I thought I could prevent hi from getting closer or stop him entirely, but I was wrong."
Twilight gasped. "Oh, no! Shining Armor, your horn!" It was covered in small, pitch-black crystals that prevented any magic from focusing up the horn.
Keldeo started forwards. "We don't have time to waste. We need to figure out what we can do to stop Sombra from getting in."


-----------------------------------------------------------------


When the group had gotten to the castle, Twilight saw a sight she was happy to see. "Cadance!" Twilight and Cadance ran towards each other, but stopped just short. "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"
Genesect nodded its head. "Interesting way of determining if they are who they appear to be. I must keep that in mind."
Cadance laughed, but then sighed. "One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance."
Keldeo noticed the bags under Cadance's eyes. "Princess, are you alright? You look like you haven't slept in days."
Shining Armor shook his head. "Cadance uses her magic to spread love and light. That seems to be what is protecting the Crystal Empire. But she hasn't slept and she barely eats. Unlike me, she has to constantly power her shield. I want to help her, but my protection spell has been countered by King Sombra."
Cadance sighed. "It's alright Shining Armor, I'm fine."
Regice floated forward. "You're not fine. Need rest. Pass out eventually."
Shining Armor nodded. "She can't go on like this forever, and if her magic were to fade... Well, you saw what's out there waiting for that to happen."
Twilight walked to Cadance. "That's why we're here."
Genesect nodded. "Affirmative."
Shining Armor smiled. "Well, with Cadance putting all her strength into keeping her spell going, and me trying to keep an eye on signs of trouble in the arctic, we haven't been able to gather much information from the Crystal Ponies."
Rarity's eyes widened. "Crystal Ponies?! Hahaha, there are Crystal Ponies?! Um, ahem. Please continue."
Shining Armor continued. "But we have to believe one of them knows how we can protect the Empire without having to use Cadance's magic."
Keldeo grinned. "What are we waiting for? Let's go talk to them. One of them has to know something."


-----------------------------------------------------------------


"That was a waste of valuable time. Princess Cadance cannot stay awake for as long as this will take to get answers." Genesect said.
Regice came over to it, Rarity, and Rainbow. "I have nothing. Miss anything?"
Rarity shook her head. "Only Genesect complaining about no information, which I have to agree with." Pinkie came over, disguised as Fluttershy. Fluttershy came over and was reasonably freaked out, but neither of them had any luck. Applejack and Twilight came over, but it was Keldeo who was late. It came running over after they were on their way back over.
Twilight looked at him funny. "What took you so long?"
Keldeo sighed. "I look vaguely similar to what they pictured the 'Heroic Knight' characters from fairy tales as. They were curious as to my adventures. I only just got away."
Pinkie giggled. "What did you tell them?"
Keldeo smirked. "Exactly what they wanted to hear. Now they think I'm actually a hero, but all I did was tell them my fights against other Pokemon."
Twilight smiled widely at that. "Excellent. That may be exactly what we need."
Genesect nodded. "I'll fill Keldeo in. Set it up." Genesect walked over to Keldeo and told it what it had missed. They had gone to a massive library and had found a history book detailing a 'Crystal Fair' that they threw every year. It made all of them feel more united to help protect the empire or something. Wasn't listening fully." The pair watched as the ponies, Spike, and Regice put the fair together, Regice and Spike being the only ones not singing. "They did jousting, though, and that or similar seems right up your alley."
Keldeo considered. "Do a fight while putting on a show? Sounds good to me. Probably should do it sometime in the middle of the fair. Too early or too late and it won't be seen by all, and the more focused on that, the more time to get other things set up." Keldeo watched Twilight put down a large heart made of crystal right under the castle. Something then clicked for it. "Wait... Genesect, what purpose would feeling unity have in protecting the empire?"
"It would make a battalion fight more as a team than a group of individuals."
"In a magical context. Love is what's keeping Sombra on the other side of the shield as he went through a normal one." Keldeo blinked. "I need that book. TWILIGHT!"
Twilight turned and saw Keldeo running over. "Hey Keldeo, the Crystal Fair is set up. What do you need?"
"The book. Something doesn't sound right to me." It began flipping through the book with Twilight looking over its shoulder. "Bingo. 'Renew the spirit of love and unity in the empire so they could protect it from harm'. Not 'as to better protect it from harm', but that is how they protect it. Question: how are emotions used as weapons or shields? Answer: Powerful artifacts. You told me about the Elements of Harmony. If Rarity cut gems to look exactly like the Elements, would they work?"
Twilight shook her head. "Of course not. The elements are artifacts that allow the bearers to use their power to..." Twilight's voice slowly died as she realized what Keldeo was saying. "The book mentioned a crystal heart as the fair's centerpiece, but what if I read it wrong and it said THE Crystal Heart? That could be an artifacts that would store the feelings of love and unity and use it like a shield or something to protect the empire! Keldeo, you're a genius!"
Keldeo shook its head. "YOU'RE a genius. I'M distrustful and look for the bluff, the double-bluff, the triple-bluff, and the Kansas City Shuffle. Your issue is that you read fast and assume that the bad guys are going to play fair. Start thinking like the other side. If you were a villain that could be stopped by love and you managed to take over a place with an artifact that emits love, what would you do?"
Twilight considered. "I would destroy it. If I couldn't do that, then I would hide it somewhere."
Keldeo nodded. "Correct. Question two: Does Sombra seem like the king who would plan for everything?"
Twilight smiled. "Absolutely. He put a curse on the empire so that he would have a second chance at taking it. Curses can't be pulled out of nowhere, they have to have been planned, especially something that big. He... I got it! He must have hidden it somewhere nopony would look for it, and put it behind some defenses that he thought only he could get past."
Keldeo chuckled. "Now you're getting it. Keeping that in mind, we need to get rid of the fake, start the fair, and find the heart."
Twilight sighed. "Part one is easy." She levitated it into the castle. "Part two, also easy. Part three, little harder."
"Do part two, then figure out part three. Let your friends know what's going on."


-----------------------------------------------------------------


"Genesect, report." Keldeo looked at the Pokemon coming towards it. "The fair is up but we have no leads on the heart."
"The Crystal Heart is in the Crystal Empire, but my scanners are unable to detect the exact location of it." Genesect looked at the fair. "Luckily we have time. Unfortunately, we have very little. Cadance's body is starting to shut down due to lack of sleep. She cannot maintain the shield for long. Twilight and Spike are trying to think of where Sombra would hide such an artifact, and Regice is being kept busy making ice sculptures."
"Genesect, I think you were right about time..." Keldeo pointed to the shield spell that faded around them. "This could end... badly." The two started towards where Sombra was, but they didn't get too far before the shield reformed. "We are out of time, Genesect. We need to do something fast. First, I need you to go to the jousting arena..."
Applejack saw Keldeo exit the castle and stand by her at the snack booth. "Where's Rainbow and Pinkie? I need them for my plan to keep everypony distracted."
"Rainbow and Pinkie are giving out Flugelhorns and making balloon animals. What do you need them for?"
"You'll see." Keldeo flashed a grin before running off to find the jouster and the advertiser.


-----------------------------------------------------------------


Keldeo breathed a sigh of relief when it saw no ponies, crystal or otherwise, in the main part of the city. "If all of them are at the jousting, then my cue should be soon." It heard Fluttershy scream and saw her get flung back as Rainbow flaunted a little bit.  She started to go see if Fluttershy was all right when a voice rang out through the arena.
"Target locked. Firing now." Rainbow barely had time to dodge to the side when a laser blasted where she had been. "Foe has speed and reactions. Adjusting to compensate." Rainbow began to take to the skies to avoid the lasers coming out of the shadows as Genesect walked out of them. The crowd gasped. I have been recognized as a surprise fight. Good, a fight will be more attention-holding than a joust. Genesect purposefully got closer and closer to hitting Rainbow with varying types of Techno Blast. It hit with a basic blast, grounding her.
"Oof!" Rainbow was very glad that she had gotten so good at catching herself from crashes and falls, but the hit still hurt. "Stupid Genesect..." She muttered, standing and wobbling a little.
Genesect brought its arms down to have four points of contact on the ground and charged up another shot when much water was shot right towards it. It leaped out of the way and turned to face its new foe. "You beat Knight Rainbow Dash, but can you handle one of the Sacred Swordsmen?" Keldeo ran into the arena to many cheers. Good. We need to keep them distracted long enough for Twilight to find the heart and get it charged so Sombra stays out.
Keldeo's horn grew to become its sword and it took the offensive. Genesect brought its arms up and began blocking the strikes, sometimes pushing back and firing a few blasts. Eventually, it began showing off its agility by jumping around the arena, lunging towards Keldeo for X-Scissor or Iron Head. Keldeo avoided the attacks, but recognized that the fight would not end in its favor at this rate. Keldeo continued its avoidance maneuvers, but expelled water from its hooves to increase the distance and speed it moved. They would have continued to put on the show if it wasn't for one simple fact: The barrier around the Crystal Empire shattered at this moment, causing the Crystal Ponies to freak out when they saw Sombra moving into the empire. Keldeo and Genesect looked at the pony- no, the entity moving closer. Keldeo frowned for a second before shaking it off.
"Rainbow! Applejack! Keep the ponies calm and over here, if possible." It yelled.
"What are you going to do?" Pinkie asked, starting to look scared.
Even as she said that, it was already leaving the arena. It stopped, looked, and turned into its Resolute Form, causing the crowd to look over at it. "I'm going to stop Sombra. Genesect, Regice, you're with me." The three left for Sombra, taking note of the black crystals that they were sure had not been there earlier.


-----------------------------------------------------------------


"Genesect, go left. Regice, take right. I'll take him head-on." The Pokemon split up as Keldeo fired a Hydro Pump at Sombra. While it didn't do any damage, it certainly got his attention.
"It appears somepony fancies themselves a hero, and has brought along friends to try and fight me. As the Crystal Heart will never be found, I suppose I can entertain myself for a little while." Sombra solidified himself and created a sword made of black crystal to lock blades with Keldeo. At the same time, he put a shield around Genesect and prevented it from joining the fight, as well as sending magical attacks at Regice. Regice blocked with ice walls and used Icy Wind to start dissipating the cloud around Sombra. It managed to get a Zap Cannon right in Sombra's face, distracting him enough for Keldeo to start slicing at him past his sword. In doing so, it broke Sombra's magical connection to the orb around Genesect, allowing it to get free and blast him with a close-ranged Burn Drive Techno Blast.
"Is that all the false king has?" Keldeo taunted.
Sombra growled. "I haven't even started." He turned back into cloud and surrounded the trio, who instinctively went back-to-back-to-back. Magical bolts started to come at them from all angles. Keldeo blocked with Sacred Sword, Secret Sword, and Close Combat, Regice used Ice Beam, Zap Cannon, and Ancient Power, and Genesect used X-Scissor, Slash, and Metal Claw.
"His head has to be in here somewhere! That's where the magic is coming from!" Keldeo yelled to its companions.
Genesect's eyes flashed red, lighting up the cloud around them. "Thermal Vision activated." Genesect allowed itself to get hit by blast after blast as it targeted Sombra. "Target locked. Fire at will." Genesect fired Chill Drive Techno Blast, striking Sombra's horn directly and preventing him from using any more magic for a short period. This period was long enough for Regice to use Icy Wind at full power, shoving the cloud off of them.
Sombra shattered the ice and turned to them, looking away from the castle and the rest of the empire. "How are you capable of fighting me, who has enough magical power to fight both of the princesses?"
"Simple mathematics." Regice answered. "Divided, we fall. United, we stand."
Keldeo walked forward. "In other words, you can fight them because they fight as a pair. We fight as one. I am Keldeo, trained by the Swords of Justice, best of fighters. This is Regice, Golem of Ice, King of Cold. This is Genesect, the Living Arsenal. See the similarities?"
"I see that you are not in your right mind." Sombra began to turn back towards the empire."
"Wrong." Genesect said. "We are all fighters, and we all have fought in groups before. We have practice in many things. Battles, competitions, distractions..."
Sombra's eyes widened at the last one as he turned back to the castle. "No..." He saw Spike come out of the top of the castle, avoiding his crystals. In his hands was the Crystal Heart. "NO!" Sombra took off for the castle at high speed, the Pokemon right behind him.
"Do not let him escape." Regice said, falling behind. Keldeo glanced up to Spike, and saw him trip and start to fall. At the same time, Sombra made a crystal spire, raising him up towards the falling heart.
"Oh no you don't..." Keldeo swung its sword at the spire before kicking it. It knocked away a piece, slowing Sombra a little. Simultaneously, Genesect began bounding up the castle. It passed Sombra before turning and lunging at him. It was knocked away, but grabbed the spire and climbed up after him. Before Genesect could reach Sombra or Sombra could reach the heart, the heart and Spike disappeared in a flash of pink.
"What?" Sombra looked for the heart, and found it on the ground, in the center of the empire, being charged by the Crystal Ponies. "What? No... No! Stop!" Sombra began to turn into smoke to escape, but Genesect slammed into him.
"Ever gone skydiving? I quite enjoy it. The rush of the air, the high speeds, exhilarating." Genesect held Sombra tightly, and used Ice Beam to freeze his horn so Sombra couldn't escape. "Of course, I do to get the drop on enemies and because I can take large falls like they're nothing. You? I don't think you'll last to hit the ground." The Crystal Heart let out a massive pulse, and Genesect found Sombra cracking in its grip. Sombra then shattered, Genesect continuing the fall. Genesect was caught in Shining Armor's magic, Sombra's crystals disappearing from his horn once the king had shattered.
"Genesect, you look ridiculous!" Rainbow laughed at the now crystalline Pokemon, who looked down at itself.
"I must concur. This crystal coating makes me far to easy to spot." Genesect noted. "On you ponies, however, it looks nice."
Keldeo chuckled. "Was that a compliment, Genesect?"
Genesect nodded. "Meloetta has been trying to make me more... sociable, per say."
Keldeo smiled. "Good on Meloetta. Let's enjoy these festivities for as long as we can. I have a bad feeling that we are in for lots of trouble soon..."


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A feline-like creature stood in a desert, looking into the skies. It was waiting for someone, and knew he would arrive shortly. Despite this, it still was impatient. As it watched, the shape of a bird crossed between it and the sun. The bird circled overhead, slowly getting closer before landing on the sand and allowing its rider to dismount. He was tall, tan, and wore a large overcoat that should have been too hot for the region. He wore combat boots, thick pants, blue gloves and reflective sunglasses. The most obvious part of his clothing, however, was what appeared to be a large shoulder pad that extended down into a gauntlet on his left arm. He raised his sunglasses upon landing and walked over to the creature.
"You requested a meeting with me, and then tell me to find you in the middle of Orre? Mewtwo, I hope there's a reasonable explanation for the secrecy." He gestured to the bird that brought him. "Took Skarmory 15 minutes to even find you, and that was with Espeon trying to lock onto your psychic powers."
"There is a highly reasonable explanation for this. A powerful force is threatening the universe, and I am required to gather help. I believe you've been informed of the Pokepark?" Getting a nod as a response, it continued. "There are, in the parks, four portals to another dimension. This place, known as the Wish Park, has much power over the minds of Pokemon due to a powerful being taking control there. We need to locate these portals and prevent any Pokemon from going into them other than those Arceus itself has requested to do so. Keep in mind, you and your Pokemon would have to hold it for quite a while, as they need to repair the Sky Prism first. I chose to ask you as, due to your experience with out-of-control Pokemon, I believe you and your Pokemon are more than capable of resisting the effects."
After some consideration, he smirked. "I'm in. I would suggest putting me and my Pokemon in the last spot, as we have experience with this sort of thing, as well as there being lots of us so we can be on shifts and have the ability to heal. Although, i do have a few requests first..."
Mewtwo nodded. "Name them."
"I'll need lots of healing items and berries so that HP and PP can be properly dealt with, a way to know who to let through, and enough food to last us. Oh, and it would be nice to know where we're going."
Mewtwo floated over to Skarmory. "What do you think? Is he making a choice for himself, or do you agree?" In its head it heard the reply.
I couldn't agree with him more.
Mewtwo nodded, and turned to the trainer, levitating many Pokeballs out of his jacket. "And you?"
I would follow him to the ends of the planet.
When do we start?
These new Shadow Pokemon don't stand a chance!
He rescued me from a horrible fate when we first met. I will never leave him.
I'm in.
Let's go.
Mewtwo smiled. "Despite your past and reputation with the police for less-than-legal procedures against other criminals, your Pokemon trust you with their lives. Very well, I'll send you to Palkia. It has your requests. I will let you know who or what to let in, as well as forcibly remove any Pokemon who have gotten too close to the portal before you arrive. Your destination is the Tech Area. Rendezvous with Reuniclus, he is unaffected by the force as of yet, and is the Area Master. It can give you some tips on how to fight the Pokemon. Good luck."
> Danger Approaches
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Blitzle yawned. It had been a long day and he didn't get much sleep. He entered the dining hall of the Guild and saw several others already there. Chatot, Lopunny, Victini, Sableye, Skuntank, and a few more were already eating. Blitzle sat down next to the poison type. "Morning Skuntank."
Skuntank looked over and smirked. "Hey Blitzle."
A small silence occurred, followed by Blitzle chuckling. "Before this whole other world thing happened, would you ever have guessed that we would speak to each other as friends?"
Skuntank scoffed. "No. I always figured the Guild would never put up with us. Not without reason, of course, but still. Reminds me why I tried to be an adventurer long before I met Zubat and Koffing."
Blitzle looked interested. "Do tell."
Skuntank shook his head. "You just want to pretend to care."
Blitzle laughed. "Kind of. I really do want to know, if that helps."
Skuntank considered and nodded. "Alright. Back when I was a Stunky, I was always assumed to be either the bad guy or up to no good. I hated it, but I saw other Poison, Dark, and Ghost Pokemon got hated irrationally as well. I determined that I wanted to go be an adventurer with a team only of these kinds of Pokemon so that we could prove out tormentors wrong. Unfortunately, most Pokemon I wanted to recruit had already given up or really were bad. After getting my spirit crushed enough, I gave up and gave in. If they wanted me to be bad so badly, I'll be bad for them. Couldn't quite bring myself to change the name, though." He ate for a little more before realizing that there was silence. He looked around and saw all the Pokemon staring at him.
"BURN! I WILL COOK YOU! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Well, all the Pokemon but Victini, who was highly intent on heating a berry.
"What?" Skuntank looked at the others.
Chatot blinked. "We had always assumed that you were just greedy and mean and wanted to be famous. We never thought you actually wanted recognition for being a good team."
Skuntank chuckled and then laughed. "Chaw-haw-haw! No, we really were bad guys. By the time the team formed, I wanted to be infamous. Darkrai ruined that reputation at the first campfire when it pointed out that our 'evil' is easily fixed. Besides, we act civil at campfires." Skuntank sighed. "I guess I kind of gave up on being good, but it wouldn't let me leave it completely behind."
Sableye scratched her head and walked off. Lopunny stood and walked over to Skuntank. "Come on, you."
Skuntank noticed he was being dragged away. "H-Hey! What do you think you're doing?"
Lopunny continued dragging him. "We're going to play a game. Chatot, send others outside when they're done eating."
Victini flew over. "Game? I love games! What's the game?"
"Hide-and-seek."
"How is hide-and-seek a game I'm going to play?" Skuntank grumbled.
Lopunny smiled. "You don't have a choice in the matter."


-------------------------------------


"Alright Scootaloo, your turn to seek!"
As a game, Hide-and-seek was not usually high on Keldeo's checklist of things to do. As an activity that gets the whole town involved along with a few extra rules, it becomes something more than a game.
"I'll take Spike and Medicham!" Scootaloo yelled.
By forcing whoever was found to come to the fountain in the center of town, it made it simple to see how many were left to find. By having there be three seekers, one 'Earth-type', one 'Air-type', and one 'Special-type', none of which could have been seekers from the previous three rounds, it forced thinking outside the box for who to pair up with. With 30 seconds to count, there is lots of ground to cover for hiders to hide and seekers to seek. By limiting hiding spots to outside and reasonably in town, there could be no issues of spending 20 minutes hunting through Sweet Apple Acres or inside every house. Inside boxes, on clouds, on roofs, in trees, in clouds, pretty much everywhere else was okay. Most Pokemon played, many ponies played, and with all of them having different thoughts on hiding and different ways of seeking, the game evolved into an event that those who played would remember for a long time.
"28... 29... 30!"
Keldeo was hidden in a bush. It felt that, as it was a big bush that covered it from all angles, it was a good place to hide. Compounded with Keldeo being perfectly still but just able to see the three seekers split up, it had a good chance at seeking.
In an alley, Absol stood. He rarely got a chance to enjoy himself in a relaxing manner, but he enjoyed it all the same. Suddenly, its knees buckled under it and it fell. After a few moments, it recovered. It ran out of the alley and turned towards the fountain. It jumped on and stood there. Keldeo noticed the look in its eyes, and ran back toward the Guild to get Gardevoir, who was not participating. She would be able to let all of them know that a disaster was coming.


-------------------------------------


Twilight paced in front of the library. "Okay. Ponyville told of Absol's warning?"
Gardevoir nodded. "Check."
Twilight nodded before continuing. "The Guild ready for anything? I know Absol said he believed it was something we would need to fight, but-"
Meloetta cut her off. "Even the non-Guild Pokemon are ready. Just to be sure, team check."
"Team Trailblazers is ready, other than Sableye." After getting strange looks, Blitzle continued. "She disappeared after breakfast. None of us can find her."
"Team Charm, all set!" Lopunny cheered.
Skuntank scoffed. "Team Skull, ready."
"Team Sneaky, we're good to go." Shade smirked from his tree branch.
"Team Cascade is prepared." Shadow glanced at Silver, who refused to speak.
"The rest of the Guild is ready." Chatot nodded. "Anything else?"
"Only sending a letter to the princess. Spike?"
"Let's see... Absol warning of something, assumes it will be a fight, see if Mew has any ideas about it. Anything else?" Spike looked up.
Twilight sighed with relief. "No. Send it." Spike takes a breath, but instead of fire coming out of his mouth, a scroll did. Twilight took it and opened it. "Dear Twilight, Discord is free and is going to Ponyville to try and prevent you and your friends from imprisoning him again. He isn't acting as he usually does and isn't playing any games. Be careful. Mew will be arriving with the Elements of Harmony as soon as we can get them."
Rarity fainted and Pinkie gasped. "Discord's free? Why isn't there any cotton candy clouds? Or chocolate rain? Or anything mildly amusing?"
"Oh, it's just like what Celestia said." They all looked up to see Discord staring down at them. "I'm done with games."
> Spirit of Disharmony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"What, were you expecting someone else?" Discord laughed. "Oh, don't be expecting the Elements of Harmony. I doubt that those princesses will ever expect me to be holding onto them. After all, how could I possibly break through the stone and magic surrounding it?" Discord pulled out a very ornate box, but put it away before anything could take it.
Twilight gulped. "Well, this could be an issue..."
Discord smiled. "For you, maybe. As I haven't yet figured out how to destroy these infernal trinkets, I'll just have to get rid of the users before any problems arise..." Before anypony could react, the ground around them shot straight up. Once the new walls stopped growing, a fence covered the opening at them top, trapping them in a box. The fence roof began going down towards them. "Let's see who won't survive this, shall we?"
"How about no!" Victini shot into the air and slammed into Discord with Flame Charge, and the grate above the ponies stopped moving.
Discord growled. "Oh, right. Forgot about the Pokemon. I hope you aren't as annoying as Deoxys was, Victini." The ground began to rise around the Pokemon, but they all started moving. Blitzle started running around randomly to avoid being trapped, Chatot flew, and Diglett just went underground. "You little... Stop moving! Stay still so I can take you out!"
"Going to go with no on that, sorry." Shade climbed a rising wall before jumping up and blasting Discord with water, avoiding a talon swiped at him. "Oh, you almost got me!" Shade smirked as he fell past Mist, Mist, Mist, Mist, and the actual Zoroark closing in on Discord from several sides.
Medicham peered around a corner and nodded. "He's distracted. What's the plan?"
Gardevoir considered. "I'll evacuate the town while you guys deal with him. Remember, he was affected by both physical and special attacks, demonstrated by Victini and Frogadier."
Shadow nodded. "He has low accuracy and attention span, and he can't keep track of everything at once. If we keep hitting him from everywhere and running distractions, we might pull this off. Gardevoir, send the message to the others." Gardevoir's eyes glowed blue for a moment, then she nodded and teleported. "Good. Now I need to find Velvet." He began to run off before Medicham put a hand in front of him.
"Don't risk it. I'll draw his attention, then go. Why her, if I may ask?"
"Simple." Shadow gave a smirk reminiscent of a trigger-happy Blastoise Team Charm had dealt with repeatedly. "She has a really powerful flame, but she can't use it with more focus."
"So?"
"So she ends up expelling a huge cone of fire. If that doesn't hinder his vision along with scorching him, I don't know what will." Shadow ran off grinning, leaving Medicham to wall jump up to Discord.
"Now where did that rabbit g-" Discord was cut off by a kick right to the chin. "You little..." Discord smashed two pies together, but missed Medicham who rocketed towards the ground and jumped behind cover. "Now where could you have gone?"
Chatot flew past Discord, flying right next to his head. He waited until Discord was focused on the ground before unleashing his Chatter attack. Discord covered his ears after, but he still was disoriented by the confusion it caused. Chatot used Hyper Voice before retreating from retaliation.
Meloetta floated up near Discord, and began to attack. It unleashed Echoed Voice, sending waves of music at Discord which then bounced around and, instead of damaging the Pokemon, heightened their focus. It fired off Hyper Voice as well, irritating Discord for getting hit with the same attack. When Discord went to grab Meloetta, it sang a strange, almost eerie tune before Discord closed his hand on it. Seconds later, Meloetta pushed Discord's hand open before jumping out of it and onto Discord. Meloetta had its now-red hair wrapped around its head, and its dress resembled a tutu. In Pirouette Forme, Meloetta danced up Discord's arm and used Close Combat on his head. Discord yelled as Meloetta sung its Relic Song again as it jumped off, turning back into Aria Forme before floating away.
Koffing began releasing noxious gasses, and Zubat used Gust to send them towards Discord's nose. When he wrinkled it out of disgust, Koffing floated in really close and used Smokescreen. With all the smoke up, Discord didn't see a Ninjask fly in at high speeds and slice at him up and down.
Having gotten onto a high area of ground that Discord helpfully pulled up, Diglett began to fire Mud Bombs at Discord. When Bidoof found its way up to Diglett, the two got an idea. Bidoof used Defense Curl and started to use Rollout when the ground around him was pulled into a Mud Bomb. He slammed into Discord and managed to hit with Headbutt before falling down.


--------------------------------------------


Pinkie had been listening to the battle and the dialogue, trying to amuse herself, when she gasped. "Twilight, Discord's not Discord!"
Twilight looked at her. "Then who is he?"
Pinkie bounced over to her. "Not-Discord? No, wait, his eviler twin! Maybe a clone! Or maybe-"
Rarity sighed. "Pinkie, darling, we really don't have time for this, not when Discord's back is turned. We may be able to escape without being noticed."
Pinkie nodded. "That too. But that isn't Discord! He isn't acting like Discord! Discord would be causing chaos on a grand scale, not just going for us. He always is in control of the situation until something he didn't expect happens. He never gives a straight answer or explains what he's going to do, remember his rhyme? I love his chaos, but this isn't fun and Discord only does things for his amusement." Realizing her friends still don't believe her, she stomped her hoof. "Really! What he's doing by going after us makes sense! This isn't Discord, who thinks making sense isn't fun. I think it actually is something trying too hard to be Discord."
Twilight froze in place. "Pinkie... Pinkie, you're a genius! This isn't be Discord, and that means this isn't Chaos Magic! I should be able to just teleport us out of here!" Twilight gathered her friends over as she charged magic into her horn, and in a flash of light they were outside the trap. "Ok... It wants us to think it's Discord, so we need to make it think we think it's Discord. We know it isn't exactly using Chaos Magic so we know we don't need to be as worried about it. We just need to get the elements away from... whatever this is."


--------------------------------------------


Genesect climbed a wall and took a few potshots at Discord, having seen the ponies escape the trap. "Blitzle, leave. I will draw his attention and you will be targeted. I can take such a hit that Discord can throw. Can you?"
Blitzle shook his head. "I can't, unfortunately. I just needed to see something. I'll be right back." Blitzle ran off, returning soon after with a large black cloud being dragged along by lightning. "Alright, you want to hit him hard?" If Genesect could grin even wider than it always does, it would have. Blitzle ran under Discord, bringing the cloud along for the ride. As the cloud went next to Discord, a Shock-Drive powered Techno Blast fired off all the electricity in the cloud right into Discord. Discord then fell to the ground, still emitting electricity.
"Wait! Stop! I surrender! I give up! I cannot defeat you!" Discord called out, waving a white flag. He then put the box holding the Elements down a small distance from himself. "You win. Take the Elements and seal me once more."
Bidoof sighed. "Finally." He started to go up to it when Twilight called out.
"Don't touch it." Bidoof looked at her, confused. Twilight then hit the box with magic and it exploded.
Discord was awe-struck. "How did you - that should have caught at least one of - you ponies are gullible and trusting!"
Twilight smiled. "Somepony told me to stop assuming the bad guys will play fair. I forgot about that when I found the Crystal Heart. I didn't want to forget it this time, Discord. Or whoever you really are." Seeing 'Discord''s surprised face almost made her laugh. "Yeah, we're smarter than you thought. Now, where are the Elements of Harmony?"
'Discord' laughed. As he spoke, his voice distorted a little bit, becoming deeper and more menacing. "In a different dimension. What, you thought I would have them somewhere that they could be taken? Please. All I have to do to stop his little plan is to get rid of you." He floated up, now glaring down at them. "How long do you honestly expect to last?" He created a large rock and threw it down at them.
"Longer than you think." 'Discord' was quickly left in shock, as the rock suddenly stopped and then began moving back at him. What he couldn't see was Genesect, Lopunny, and Applejack holding the rock as Meloetta, Medicham, Victini, Twilight, Rarity, and Ally pushed it back with telekinesis. Blitzle smirked. "We have more in us than you think." All of them scattered once more, but now the Pokemon stopped holding back, if they had been before. They attacked with greater frequency. 'Discord' wasn't as easily distracted, however, and he was retaliating with more ferocity, like a caged animal. He created a variety of objects that kept flying towards his foes, and managed some good hits.
Ponyta ran over to Velvet, who was keeping out of sight. "Hey, come out of there. I have an idea." Getting no reply, Ponyta continued. "Your flame is really strong from what I've heard. You have the Flash Fire ability, right?" Velvet nodded. "Great. I hit you with a fire attack and you get  more powerful fire attacks for the fight. All you have to do is attack. You in?" Velvet seemed hesitant, but nodded with a defiant look on her face. Ponyta smiled and used Ember. The flame seemed to be absorbed into Velvet's fur.
Velvet ran out of her cover and fired Flamethrower right at 'Discord''s face. A massive inferno shot into the air and covered 'Discord'. After the flame died down, 'Discord' wiped soot from his face and glared down at the two fire types. He pulled out a large bucket and dumped a torrent down at them. Ponyta grabbed Velvet by the scruff of her neck and ran out of the way. "That was far too close. Are you okay?" Velvet responded with a nod and a small smile before the pair peeked out from the new cover and attacking again.
Keldeo dodged around everything, keeping eyes on 'Discord''s projectiles. 'Discord' swatted Victini down into the ground. Keldeo looked where Victini fell, not noticing a long stick flying at it.
"Look out!" Fluttershy's voice called out to it right before the speaker pushed Keldeo out of the way. Keldeo looked back and saw that the stick had gone right through one of her back legs. She didn't seem to be in pain, however. In fact, she seemed more concerned about being held in place by it. "I'm stuck." 
Keldeo swung its sword, slicing of part of the stick and pushing it out of Fluttershy. "I need to get you out of here, fast. If your leg isn't treated-
"For what? Extreme luck?" Fluttershy's voice didn't come out of the Pegasus, instead a voice mildly familiar to Keldeo. "I mean, it went through one of the existing holes in my leg. I couldn't have gotten it like that if I tried." The Pegasus erupted in green flame, revealing a smirking Changeling. "Surprise!"
Keldeo did a double-take. "Voice Box? When did you get here?"
"About when I freed your leg. I was the only one here, though. I asked if I could stay in the Everfree while peace talks were going on. You know, just in case." She smiled. "I'm glad I did. Now I've repaid my debt."
Keldeo dodged behind something to avoid a pile of bricks. "What debt?"
"You Pokemon gave us a chance, despite what we are and what we've done. We can't thank you enough."
Keldeo grinned as he peeked out from his cover. "Everyone deserves to be judged on their actions and their motivations for doing them. And everyone deserves a second chance. Of course, had you continued to be antagonistic, I wouldn't have extended peace." Keldeo then galloped up the pile of bricks, firing water from its hooves on the last jump to go flying towards 'Discord'. "Secret Sword!" Keldeo's sword blade extended farther than ever before as it sliced 'Discord'. It was punched straight into the ground for its efforts.
Stripe snuck over to 'Discord' and latched onto it with his tongue. As 'Discord' tried to shake him off, he pulled himself up to hang on with his hands before climbing on. He clamored onto its arm and used Psybeam. When that didn't do much, he used Ancient Power repeatedly before being knocked off into a rock.
Having seen far too many Pokemon get knocked around, Lopunny retreated to Medicham when Gardevoir teleported back. "All non-combatants have been evacuated. 'Discord' never messed with the train."
Medicham sighed. "Good. At least they will be safe. We are unable to handle 'Discord'. I wish we had more help." A bright flash of light enveloped the area, causing even 'Discord' to stop to cover his eyes. When the light died down, Jirachi had appeared.
"Wish? Good choice of words." Jirachi giggled as 'Discord' was suddenly slammed aside. "I think we may be able to help."
"False Discord. I held you off at Canterlot. I will do the same here." Deoxys turned from Speed into Attack and fired off a Psycho Boost.
'Discord' avoided the blast. "Actually, you failed to stop me from doing anything I needed to do. All you did was slow me down because of your impossible immunity to my Chaos Magic-like power that this form holds. All you did was run out the timer before I could have my fun. What makes you think you can stop me?"
"I brought a friend." Deoxys then teleported straight up as a large red rubber ball hit 'Discord' in the face. It bounced before floating in front of him and popping. The pieces then formed into Discord.
"What, were you expecting someone else?" Discord laughed. "Let's give him some real Chaos, shall we?" Deoxys nodded and both of them began attacking 'Discord'. With Deoxys going Defense and blocking everything before going Attack to hit hard and the Discords throwing everything but the kitchen sink at each other (and Discord even threw the sink at his false copy a few times), as well as Jirachi's Doom Desire causing mild problems for 'Discord', the others were given a chance to recover.
"Guys, I don't think that they're doing more than annoying the fake." Twilight said. As if on cue, Deoxys was knocked a distance back before going back into the fight. "Case in point. We don't have a chance without the Elements."
Victini looked close to tears. "I think I have to agree. I always win, and I think that we're going to lose."
Lopunny blinked. "So... all is lost?"
What got to Twilight was that Lopunny said that, not with resignation, but hope. "I'm starting to think so. From what that thing said Deoxys was the only reason Canterlot isn't destroyed and Deoxys couldn't beat it. And even now, watching this fight, Deoxys and Discord are outmatched. So yeah, I do think all is lost right about now."
To her surprise and everyone else's, Lopunny started laughing. "You just reminded me of something one of my best friends likes to remind us."
Pinkie got a big smile. "Well? What is it?"
"He likes to remind us that no matter where we are or how badly things look, he will always come to help us out. He also likes to tell us that no matter how badly things get, there is always hope. So when you say that all is lost, all is not lost. All is NEVER lost." Lopunny looked right at Twilight. "You explained to me that Harmony Magic can be used in multiple ways. The Elements are one way, and the most outright powerful. You said music is another, correct?"
Twilight nodded, still a little confused. "Yeah, it helps tasks go by far quicker and often helps bring us closer to who we are."
Lopunny turned to Meloetta. "Think you can provide the music until the magic kicks in?"
Meloetta pulled out its guitar. "I got the tune. Thanks for the mind-reading idea at the campfire."
Lopunny nodded. "You're welcome. Let's sing."


It's coming down, babe.
Could be as bad as they talked about.
It's coming down, babe.
Could be before we can make it out.


Gardevoir, Medicham, and Meloetta joined in on the chorus, all with smiles on their faces.


But when they say that all is lost, all is not lost, all is not lost.
But when they say all is lost, all is not lost, no all is not lost at all.


Team Charm sang together to continue the song.


They could be right about it.
They could be right in some crazy way.
'Cause if they yell fire, well that's what we get.
Yeah they yell fire, and that's what we get.
So, yeah it's coming babe.
Probably bad as they talked about.
But just remember: when the tide rolls in,
it can't be too long until it rolls back out.


As the song continued, 'Discord' and Discord began to fight with less power, however Discord was far less affected. This change in power allowed Deoxys to start pressing an advantage and give Discord time to think of something new to throw at the fake.


And when they say all is lost, all is not lost, all is not lost.
But when they say that all is lost, all is not lost, no all is not lost at all.


A new voice took the next part, one Twilight couldn't quite place.


And if they burn, if they burn this place down to the ground, what does it matter?
What does it matter now?


Meloetta enjoyed playing, and Twilight looked to Lopunny in surprise. "You knew that your friend would join in, didn't you?"
Lopunny nodded. "What can I say, I believe in him coming through on his promises."


'Cause when they say that all is lost, all is not lost, all is not lost.
But when they say that all is lost, all is not lost. No, all is not lost, not lost at all.


As the rest joined in, they had a renewed vigor that made them ready to continue the fight.


No all is not lost at all, no all is not lost at all
No all is not lost, not lost at all
And when they say that all is lost, all is not lost, all is not lost.
But when they say that all is lost, all is not lost. No, all is not lost, not lost at all.


While all of them ad picked themselves up and were ready for round three, another portal had opened, high in the air. Only one being saw it, and Deoxys pushed 'Discord' right next to it. Seconds later, 'Discord' was slammed to the ground and then sent flying back. On the second hit, 'Discord''s side went grayscale and sort of cube-like, but only for a second. Standing with an expression never before seen on his face was a large, pink, bunny-like creature. The expression was anger directed towards the victim of its attacks. "Yoom. Tah."
> Master of the Guild
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"G-Guildmaster Wigglytuff!?" Blitzle couldn't believe his eyes. "How did you-"
"I followed through on my promise, of course." Wigglytuff had gotten his usual big smile and jolly personality back. "It wouldn't do well for me to break them. Who would listen to an untrustworthy Guildmaster, let alone an untrustworthy friend."
'Discord' was aghast. "You... I actually felt that one. That one hurt. How did you harm me?"
Wigglytuff glared. "You attack my Guild, attack my friends, generally be a big bad meanie and you get surprised when I fight you? That's just dumb. Still, you can stop this. Don't fight us and we can settle this peacefully" Wigglytuff jumped out of the way of a large ice cube. He gave a guilty smile. "Welp, it was worth a shot. Wigglytuff Guild, ATTACK!" On Wigglytuff's yell, the Guild charged, followed soon after by the non-Guild Pokemon.
'Discord' laughed. "Really? Round three? I've beaten you before, and only one of you actually harmed me. What do you think you can do to stop me?" He threw Discord at them. Wigglytuff stopped and caught Discord, letting the other Pokemon through as Discord re-oriented himself.
Discord looked down at Wigglytuff with surprise. "You're more filled with Harmony Magic than any single pony I've ever seen. Not even Celestia or Twilight has this much raw Harmony in them."
Wigglytuff shrugged. "I do what I do because there are those who can't or need help. I try to make sure the whole Guild is happy and friendly. And I love exploring and finding new things. Does that explain it?"
Discord nodded. "It should. Add to that the fact that you Pokemon are affected by the magical energies of Equestria and you have a recipe for a lot of Harmony Magic."
Wigglytuff nodded. "Good." Wigglytuff ran over to the fight and slammed into 'Discord', turning him gray and into cubes for a second. "Tag! You're it!"
"Grr... Enough!" 'Discord' tossed Wigglytuff off him and floated up into the air. "I have had enough of your foolishness, you pathetic beings. You have no more help coming!"
"They don't? Sorry, I didn't know." 'Discord' turned to see Tornadus looking at him with a bemused expression. "I leave for a few hours to go get windmills running again using slightly higher than normal wind speeds and you end up with an issue on your hands. But if I'm not welcome into the party, I'll just go." Tornadus turned and started to leave, but turned around at the last second. "Oh, yeah, big serpent dragon thing, can I ask you a question?"
'Discord' sighed. "What is it?"
"How could you be so brainless as to think that there is no one else coming?" 'Discord' failed to reply on the grounds of being slammed back to the ground by Wigglytuff, who had been telekinetically put above him. Once again, being hit by Wigglytuff had caused temporary gray-scaling and blockiness by the impact spot. "Because really, I would think that you would expect more interruptions."
Rainbow flew over to it. "Tornadus? How'd you know to come?"
Tornadus thought. "I heard a call for aid. Catchy tune, by the way. I figured I'd answer the call. What's with the pair of lizards?"
"The one over by my friends is Discord, spirit of disharmony, I think. The other one tried to pretend to be Discord, but isn't. We... really aren't sure what it is."
Tornadus considered. "So the one being attacked needs to be attacked more?"
Rainbow nodded. "I mean, it is evil unless I'm mistaken. And I'm not. Don't expect to do much more than annoy it, though."
Tornadus grinned. "That's what I do best." Tornadus kicked up a tornado under itself and flew right towards the fight.
Twilight shook her head. "This doesn't make sense. The false Discord has already proven to not fall into Discord's pattern of randomness and getting distracted, and yet it got distracted here anyways. What's going on?"
"The answer is simple, really." Twilight jumped as the ground under her turned into Discord's face. "It's as obvious as the main issue with using certain kinds of polymorphic spell, especially for an extended period of time. By assuming my form for such a long time, the behavior of the entity being imitated began to influence this being's behavior to the point of slowly creating a mixture between personalities. By using what amounts to my Chaos Magic, the rate at which the Polymorphic Behavorial Mixing Effect happens is increased exponentially. Even if it just was putting up an illusion of me as the form to attack you with, the effect would still occur but at a slower rate. Basic magical theory, Twilight. It's been on the curriculum for every foal since before I was first imprisoned in stone."
Twilight nodded. "Well, yes, but Starswirl the Bearded disproved it when he used a polymorphic spell to turn into Princess Celestia for a month, and both Starswirl and Princess Celestia agreed that he acted perfectly normal - well, for him - the whole time."
Discord laughed. "The two of them were very similar. So similar, in fact, that his behavior wouldn't show a quantifiable change for far longer than a month."
"So you're saying that this thing is starting to become like you?" Pinkie asked, not having been paying attention.
Twilight ignored her. "Wait, how long has it been out?"
Discord thought. "A few hours. It's been in my head for much longer, however, so it had already absorbed much of my personality. It also was pretending to completely be me, so that likely had an effect greater than it would if it was merely looking like me."
Pinkie raised her voice again. "If it is you or like you, wouldn't the Elements be effective on it?"
Discord nodded. "That is a thought. I could go get them from Canterlot."
Twilight shook her head. "It said it put them in another dimension so we couldn't take them and use them against it."
Discord's face went into a frown. "I could try to find them, but it may take a while. Wish me luck!" Before anything else could be said, Discord ate his tail and pulled himself into another dimension.
"I'm getting a headache just thinking about what he just did." Twilight rubbed her nose. "Alright girls, we need to make sure the fake Discord doesn't realize that Discord is off retrieving the Elements of Harmony."
"Because that's going to be easy." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "What do you want us to do, poke it? In case you forgot, we can't do anything to it without the Elements."
Twilight sighed. "We can at least try to help the Pokemon."
The ground underneath the ponies began to move. They all backed away as a small purple hand pushed up out of the ground, followed by the rest of Sableye. She looked around, covering her eyes from the light. "Sableye? Darling, where did you come from?"
"I went digging. I smelled a gem, and look what I found!" Sableye showed off a large yellow sphere with red and purple stripes in it. "It's tasty, but it isn't edible. I already tried."
"That is a gorgeous gem. The red and yellow bring out your eyes and highlight the jewel on your chest." Rarity fawned over the orb briefly, until Twilight cleared her throat pointedly. "Erm, yes. You came at a rather inconvinient time. You see, we seem to be under attack from a fake Discord and Wigglytuff seems to be the only one able to harm it."
Sableye nodded and turned towards the fight. "Wait! Wait a second!" Mew appeared between the ponies and Sableye. "The Elements are-"
"-missing, yeah, we know. Also, that isn't Discord, not really." Twilight smiled at Mew. "Have anything we haven't already figured out or are you going to help us figure out how to stop that thing?"
"Actually, both. That false Discord is... an old friend of mine, we'll say. As a creature of chaos and destruction - well, mostly corruption now - it has a weakness to order, unity, and creation. And harmony, but that's just specialized unity with some order mixed in." Mew nodded towards Sableye. "And that... is an item of unity. It is called Sablenite. It will allow you to Mega Evolve."
"Umm, I could be mistaken..." Fluttershy began, shrinking under Mew's look. "But- But isn't Sableye unable to evolve? She told me herself."
"You are absolutely correct!" Mew flew around Fluttershy's head. "Except this isn't evolution, this is Mega Evolution. It requires three things: One, a Pokemon holding their appropriate Mega Stone, if possible. Second, a Key Stone." Mew clapped its hands together and produces a small, rainbow-striped orb with a strange design. "C, and most importantly, there must be someone who has a powerful bond with the Pokemon in question. Anyone fit that description?"
All present pointed at Rarity. "I suppose I fit that description. Although, do you suppose you could make that into a necklace? It really would be far easier to carry." Mew tossed the Key Stone into the air and when it had returned, it was embedded in a pendant that was attached to a piece of purple ribbon.
"Here." Mew put it around Rarity's neck. "Activate the Sablenite whenever you're ready. I'm going to join the fight." Mew teleported before Rarity could ask how to activate it.
Genesect was blasting the ground with Ice Beam to make a frozen pillar as it avoided 'Discord''s attacks. 'Discord', seeing the pattern, slammed it's hand down to crush Genesect when it's hand stopped. There was something stopping its hand, and it wasn't Genesect. 'Discord' closed its hand around whatever it was, when the resistance disappeared and it fell forward. "What? WHAT?"
"Miss me?" 'Discord' turned to find a Hitmonlee's feet kicking it in the face. Hitmonlee landed, turned into Hitmonchan and unleashing Sky Uppercut. "Shoryuken!"
"Mew..." 'Discord''s eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"
Mew changed back into itself. "Stopping you. I thought we got rid of you during our last battle."
'Discord' laughed. "Didn't you get the memo? You can't get rid of chaos, and you can't destroy destruction."
"That was then, this is now." Mew turned into a Muk, and 'Discord''s next volley passed right through it. "And not only are you a creature of corruption now, I don't think you stand a chance anymore. I may not create much anymore, but I doubt you can do much to me."
"You really think that, do you? I have no doubt in my ability to fight you and all these minor pests." 'Discord' smiled evilly until a change in the atmosphere halted it. "What was that?"
"Oh, nothing. I think." Mew shrugged. "Not important." Mew fired off a Hyper Beam spread which was disintegrated by 'Discord', who prepared to slam Mew with its tail when it was poked in the back of the head. More accurately, he was hit by Dark Pulse.
"Hello there," Darkrai said as he floated in front of 'Discord'. "Personally, I would have thought you'd have prevented anyone from knowing what you're doing. That's what I would have done if I was you."
'Discord' growled. "I did. So how do you just keep coming!?"
Darkrai gave a dark laugh. "Dunno. How come I heard a song requesting help? I don't know either, but what matters is that it was broadcast to everyone who can fight." It dodged down and handed Lopunny a scroll. "Give this to Twilight." She obliged, and Darkrai went back up to Deoxys.
"Foe is strong. High stats all around. Ideas?" Deoxys asked, tilting its head.
"Run distractions. Keep it occupied. Find a weakness and exploit it." Darkrai nodded. "If all else fails, hit it hard, hit it fast, and do not let it hit you."
Deoxys flew around 'Discord' in Speed Forme, sending attacks while keeping a distance away. Darkrai began doing the same. Mew flew down to the Pokemon below. "Just hitting it won't do much. Hit it as a team, and it will do more. Team attacks are on and we'll keep it busy, so you have time to prepare. Have fun!" Mew teleported back into the fight.
Twilight looked at the letter. "A wormhole spell? But where would I... oh, connect with Luna to make the wormhole without having to use precise locations." Twilight began charging magic before beginning to open the wormhole.
'Discord' heard this and looked at her. "Hmm, no you don't." It knocked Deoxys back and flew around Darkrai and Mew to stop the spell. With a roar of anger, Mew turned into Machamp, grabbed its tail, and pulled.
"Not. An. Inch." Mew growled, holding 'Discord' back as the wormhole grew.
"You don't have a choice." 'Discord' removed its tail, which dissolved quickly. It lunged for Twilight, but was blocked by Wigglytuff. 'Discord' immediately stopped and went around as best it could, avoiding the other attacks heading towards it.
"There! All set." Twilight nodded to Gardevoir, who was setting up a barrier around her. "I've connected with Luna's end of the wormhole, so any second now we're going to know why she asked me to set it up."
"Or perhaps you won't!" 'Discord' snarled, shattering the shield and throwing Gardevoir aside. "You will not live long enough to find out!" He raised a wall in front of Twilight and pushed it over so it would fall on her.
It didn't fall very far before stopping. There was a loud noise from behind it before it broke into pieces and 'Discord' was grabbed and shoved into the ground. Holding it there was a massive white creature. On it were black markings and large yellow pieces that seemed to be a head and joints. Moss grew on its shoulders and feet. It had 6 large gemstone-like spots of red, blue, and silver, along with seven black dots on what could be considered face. It raised its other fist, holding there for a second, and slamming down onto 'Discord'.
Ponyta ran away from the titan to avoid becoming collateral damage. She heard Darkrai chuckling and turned to it. "What's so funny?"
"Do you remember why I left Canterlot after Deoxys appeared?"
"Yeah. You had mentioned you thought other legendary Pokemon had arrived or would arrive and went to find a cave or something for them." Ponyta shook her head. "I thought that was just a bad excuse."
Darkrai nodded. "I was being honest. This is who I was referring to. I could feel its power immediately. This is quite possibly the smartest legendary, and definitely one of the most physically strong. This is Regigigas, the King of the Golems." As if on cue, the train returned, however the conductor wasn't the one driving, nor was he anywhere close. Regice exited the train and approached quickly, and charged towards 'Discord' firing Ice Beam.
"I am pleased have the capability to meet some of the creatures that inhabit this world." A deep voice said. It had a strange echoing to it, as if it came from inside a hollow Regigigas. "Unfortunately, these circumstances are less than ideal for greetings. Therefore, I would rather become acquainted after this threat has become incapacitated so as to remove a violent interruption from the equation." Ponyta gave an incredulous look to Darkrai.
"Ah, yes, he speaks like that. Standard for comparison: Victini, due to being trapped under a lighthouse for a long time, wanted to catch up on games and fun things. Regigigas, due to being supposedly sealed for far longer than that, decided to learn everything. The only Pokemon who knows more than him is Uxie, who is the Knowledge Pokemon. Not even Mew can answer questions faster and more accurately than Regigigas." Darkrai shook its head. "That doesn't mean you can understand him. It doesn't quite grasp that not everyone can understand big words as easily as it can."
Rarity fumbled with the Key Stone, shoving it in Sableye's face, up to the Sablenite, holding it over her head. "Oh come on! Now is when Sableye wants to fight! Why won't this work?"
"Have ya tried pressin' it?" Applejack asked. "Kinda looks like a button to me." Rarity raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as she pressed it. To her surprise, it and the Sablenite began to glow, before a sphere encased Sableye. In seconds, the sphere shattered leaving Sableye behind. Her eyes had turned red, her teeth grew and became yellow, her ears grew and she got a new spike on the top of her head. Her back had more gems, and the ruby in her chest came out and grew to a very large size. Sableye yelled in triumph before grabbing her gem and running over to the fight.
'Discord' managed to escape the Crush Grip of Regigigas and had knocked Regice into Wigglytuff when Sableye ran over. "Oh look, a Sableye with a large gem. Where did you come from? Oh wait, I don't care!" it said, but it very quickly began to care when a Shadow Ball hit... and hurt. It shot a fireball, but was blocked by Mew's barrier.
"Don't think you've won yet!" Mew fired off attacks of every kind, changing shape to fit the attack better or to dodge more effectively, sometimes becoming an amalgamation of multiple Pokemon. Victini joined in, mixing up impossible dodges with pinpoint accurate attacks. Keldeo ran over to Blitzle.
"Remember those attacks I got mad at you and Ponyta about using?" It yelled above the fight's noise.
"Fusion Bolt, Fusion Flare, and Bolt Strike?" Blitzle was surprised. He had figured Keldeo would ignore those attacks. He had certainly forgotten until Keldeo asked.
"The Fusion attacks, but Bolt Strike and its counterpart Blue Flare as well."
Blitzle nodded. "I remember them. Why?"
Keldeo grimaced. "Use them. We need more power, and Legendaries don't just give away signature moves. Remember, use the Fusion move of the other type after either attack to increase power." Blitzle nodded and ran over to Ponyta.
"You heard that, right?" Blitzle asked.
Ponyta smirked. "Keldeo practically shouted it. Let's go." Ponyta charged up fire, but only released Flamethrower. Blitzle charged forward, but only ended up with a Wild Charge and was knocked away easily.
"What are we doing wrong?" Blitzle stomped the ground in anger.
Ponyta thought, before gasping. "Last time we used them, against the Ursa, Reshiram spoke to me. You said Zekrom spoke to you. We were asked about the truth. Maybe that's what we need."
Blitzle shook his head. "I was asked about ideals."
"Truth versus ideals? How would we call upon those?"
"I don't know about you, but I need to want something to become better. What I want - what I need - is the power to stop this creature."
Summon my power.
Blitzle grinned. "It worked!"
"Maybe I need to tell the truth?" Ponyta poked the ground. "I'm not as strong as I could be." She paused. "I am a member of the Guild?"
Blitzle shook his head again. "Those are facts, not truths. I don't know the difference, but tell a truth that isn't a fact."
Ponyta thought hard, but not very long before coming up with her answer. "You were my first friend. Sure, everyone in Treasure Town was really nice, but they were too busy to really be a friend to me. When you saved me on the beach, I thought you were just going to go leave like every other Pokemon. But you stayed to help me get back in case the Krabby attacked again and we actually had fun together. When we joined the Guild, they became friends too, but you're still my best friend." Ponyta was crying as she spoke. "Whenever I screwed up I thought you were going to go find a new partner and leave me behind, But even when I did something so bad Wigglytuff had to step in and I got in trouble, you stuck with me through everything and took the punishments with me. The reason I always act like I'm the one in charge is so you don't have to do that as well... because that's the least I can do to try and help. You've always been the better fighter and the quicker thinker, and I've... always been so worried that you'd decide I'm bringing you down and abandon me."
The truth is more emotional than the facts. The truth can be difficult to accept. You have shared a harsh truth. I chose well. Summon my power, Trailblazer.
Blitzle poked Ponyta. "Hey, you in there?"
She nodded. "It worked."
"Just so you know, you screwed up again." Blitzle chuckled. "I would never abandon you. So, best friend, want to go beat up that thing?" Ponyta merely flashed him a grin before flaming up. Blitzle sparked up and sped towards 'Discord'.
Unfortunately, 'Discord' didn't just notice, but countered with a funnel that caught Fusion Flare before striking Blitzle with it, interrupting Fusion Bolt. "I grow weary of this farce. Perhaps I should just let the ones who know you best finish you off."
"What manner of creature could be offered as helpful to your side of this conflict?" Regigigas questioned. "All data suggests that you have a crippling deficiency of allies that could stand up to the level of power that our team - I daresay it could be referred to as an army - and you yourself are having a hard time with the few who can hit you when you retreat to the skies."
'Discord' laughed. "Fair, but I haven't said who your new opponents are yet." As he talked, a shadowy portal formed on the ground under it. Everything was magically shoved away from it as gray versions of each of them appeared. At the same time, 'Discord' rapidly turned gray. "You're going to fight them. Knock yourselves out... literally." The shadowy versions went straight for their counterparts.
Shadow Blitzle obviously forgot his own ability, as he kept trying to shock the original. "Really?" Blitzle went in with Flame Charge, and Shadow Blitzle followed suit and began chasing him.
The Ponytas just traded attacks from a distance for a while, until Ponyta decided "I've had enough of this," and charged Blue Flare - but Shadow Blitzle slammed into her, allowing Shadow Ponyta to attack with Flamethrower.
"Talk about copies. They even work together as dysfunctional as us." Blitzle shocked Shadow Ponyta. "I'll fight you if you'll fight me."
"Done." Ponyta dodged a Wild Charge and hit with Ember. "I can follow fire better than I can follow you, so you just lost." Ponyta began shooting flames at Shadow Blitzle as he ran, and eventually caught him with Blue Flare. She glanced over at Blitzle, who was dodging the flames easily before slamming into Shadow Ponyta with Wild Charge. After being beaten, the shadow copies turned into a dark mist, which dissolved.
"Looks like they have our abilities and skills." Blitzle said. "What they don't have is our skill. Sure they can do everything, but we have the experience. Either that or we're just that good at fighting each other."
The two Sableyes used the large gems to block the Shadow Balls and other attacks their selves used. Sableye eventually just grabbed her gem and jumped onto Shadow Sableye and crushed her under the weight of both massive gems. "What's wrong, can't handle the pressure?"
Team Charm fought similar to the Trailblazers by fighting each other's copies. Gardevoir fought Shadow Medicham, Medicham fought Shadow Lopunny, and Lopunny fought Shadow Gardevoir. Almost immediately, the Shadow team managed to switch so they had the advantage. "Fine. Let's go." Lopunny grumbled about having lost the advantage due to having to take on Shadow Medicham. She wasn't fighting, instead just dodging. She knew her team would re-take the advantage, so until then she just avoided attacks. She glanced to the left, where Medicham was fighting Shadow Gardevoir. Medicham fought aggressively, not wanting to give her foe a chance to use a Psychic or Fairy attack. She jumped a Moonblast and came down hard with High Jump Kick before flipping back to avoid a counter attack. On Lopunny's right Gardevoir had stopped caring and just used psychic power to catch Shadow Lopunny and threw her at Sableye. Shadow Lopunny attacked Sableye, but immediately found that she wasn't doing anything to the Dark-Ghost Pokemon. Sableye chased her around with her giant gem. Gardevoir then blasted Shadow Medicham with Moonblast, giving Lopunny an opening to hit with Bounce. Gardevoir hit her shadow with Shadow Ball, and Medicham finished her off with Thunder Punch and Fire Punch.
"Chaw haw haw! What's wrong, can't stand the smell?" Skuntank laughed as Zubat and Tornadus kept the Noxious Gas Combo in a funnel around Shadow Team Skull and Shadow Tornadus. As the four turned into dark mist, Skuntank laughed again. "Thanks for using Hurricane to damage them more."
Tornadus nodded. "Noxious Gas Combo... I need to keep that in mind."
Keldeo, meanwhile, crossed swords with Shadow Keldeo, while Victini once again fought Shadow Victini, who asked "Remember me?" before fighting. Regice and Shadow Regice dueled purely with Ice Beam, and Regigigas wrestled Shadow Regigigas and destroyed much of the land around them. Jirachi and Shadow Jirachi would have fought, except Jirachi had already taken care of it and went to help Deoxys in its battle. Darkrai and its shadow were in the air, fighting with attacks of all kinds.
"You're the Pitch Black Pokemon, a being of nightmares. Who could ever enjoy a nightmare's company?" At each lull, Shadow Darkrai was making every attempt at getting under Darkrai's skin. "It would hurt less to just be cruel or destroy everything."
"I concur. It was easier. But we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy. I chose right, and therefore I hold my power back so as to become accepted." Darkrai made a mental note to look up where that quote was from. Cresselia had told it those words, but prefaced them by mentioning a wise man once said that. "On you, however, I hold nothing back."
"Then why am I not scared?"
Darkrai paused, then nodded. "Alright then. You wish to see the full power you claim to wield? Very well." Darkrai reached up to its neck and pulled off its necklace of Lunar Wings. "I shall fulfill your request to fight the master of nightmares!" Darkrai then faded.
It reformed behind Shadow Darkrai. Before the shadow could react, Darkrai had fused into its shadow's mind. "What- Get out of there!"
"No. You wished to see what I could do, and I agreed to show you. I am noble, but let it never be said I am nice. Now, shall we see what you are afraid of?" Shadow Darkrai began shaking in midair. It put its hands on the side of its head, as if to prevent it from splitting. Seconds later, it inflated and popped like a balloon, leaving Darkrai in its place, arms outstreatched to its sides, claws pointed back. "This is my full power. Nightmares aren't nice, are they?"
Wigglytuff quickly was surrounded by the shadows of himself, Chatot, Bidoof, and Diglett. He dodged a Peck and threw Shadow Wigglytuff into Shadow Chatot before jumping over Shadow Bidoof and using Slam to take out Shadow Diglett. He then used Double-Edge to take out Shadow Bidoof and Shadow Chatot before running right at himself and using Hyper Voice, which was immediately followed by Pound. "Done." Wigglytuff smiled at the looks of awe on Bidoof and Diglett's faces.
Shadow growled at the Shadow Girafarig. "Focus on Ally's fake! She can heal them!"
Silver grinned. "Sounds good! Feint Attack!"
"Velvet, do NOT fight your copy." Shadow used Spark and slammed into the Shadow Vulpix. "Your fire might strengthen her." Velvet nodded, using Fire Spin to keep the Shadow Shinx and Shadow Skitty from causing trouble. "Ally, I know you prefer healing to fighting but I could use a Psybeam over here."
"Alright." A Psybeam cut through a powerful Flamethrower and hit the offending Shadow Vulpix, confusing her.
"Thanks. Thunder Fang!" Shadow's powerful jaws broke the Shadow Vulpix, disintegrating her. He turned to see a Shadow Skitty leaping at him. "BACK OFF!" He roared and she got knocked back mid-leap. Using Spark, he slammed into her, knocking her back into the Fire Spin, where she burned.
Silver stuck her tongue out at Shadow. "One left! Let's take you out." Velvet collapsed the Fire Spin in on itself, causing it to function like a furnace and super-heating the insides and Shadow Shinx. "Great job Velvet!"
A small distance away, Team Sneaky dealt with their doppelgangers. "Here's one for you: a Kecleon walked through a crowded room. He didn't realize he was surrounded by foes who could beat him regardless of typing." Shade kicked Shadow Kecleon's feet out from under him, knocking him up before Shade fired off Water Pulse, knocking him up higher before leaping up and using Smack Down to flatten him. Shade glanced at Ninj, who seemed to be slicing at air with X-Scissor. Shortly, a Shadow Zoroark faded into view before dissolving away.
"I work with a Zoroark, experienced with all sorts of flawless illusion. I can see through an illusion with that many errors. Yo Mist, any issues?" Twelve Zoroarks fell upon a Shadow Frogadier, and one sliced him repeatedly until it dissolved.
"Idiot." Mist sighed. "I use that trick or a variation as my go-to. It really isn't that hard to understand." Stripe walked over.
"I'm surprised Ancient Power was that accurate, but I caught him before he could get up to speed." Stripe laughed. "Seemed pretty surprised about it." Stripe was pulled out of the way as Shadow Absol was sent flying past with a cut down his face, disapatting into the dark mist before dissolving.
Mew's clone was - reasonably, ironically, and hilariously - a Shadow Mewtwo. Who proceeded to have to wait 10 seconds in order to do anything as Mew put a bubble around itself as it laughed. "Are you quite finished yet?"
"Hahaha! Yeah, almost. Heh... oh, that's funny." Mew wiped its eye and popped the bubble. "Quick question, are you a Shadow Pokemon? Not in coloration, I mean, but as in actions. Is the so-called 'door to your heart' closed?"
Shadow Mewtwo stopped preparing to attack. "What? Why could you possibly care?"
Mew shrugged. "I'm curious. If you're all Shadow Pokemon as well as shadow copies, that would be too perfect. Chaos copies? No, corrupted clones. The alliteration is perfect."
"I suppose we are what would result of turning you all into Shadow Pokemon." Shadow Mewtwo nodded. "But then why am I not a clone of you?"
"You are. You are the Shadow Pokemon version of my actual clone, Mewtwo. The reason you aren't as savage, and why you kindly waited for me to finish laughing before starting the fight, is because it... doesn't exactly have all that far to go to become a Shadow Pokemon. In fact, when it first was cloned from me, it was far worse than any Shadow Pokemon. At least Shadow Pokemon listen to the one in charge of them... most of the time. Mewtwo killed all of the scientists who created it. If it weren't for... I digress. Due to many meetings, battles, and temporary companions, Mewtwo began to realize that its philosophy of those with power are in charge had been wrong. it began to find a new philosophy. Currently, it has decided to be a very kind Pokemon, helping other Pokemon while using its powers to help or defend. You, however, are all about the fighting, and I'm going to hazard a guess that you like one-on-one battles. I'll even suppose close and mid-range fighting while using projectiles to control the foe's movements and prevent them from approaching?"
"That does sound the most exhilarating. How could you possibly know this?" Shadow Mewtwo flew over to Mew.
"Because I know myself, I know Mewtwo, and I know you aren't evil, despite being created to be an evil clone of me. You see, I'm too good to have an evil side, and a clone of my dark side would be a great fighter, but wouldn't find my look good for being scary and would be honorable, for a bad guy. They would look like Mewtwo, but have a similar sense of kindness to it and myself." Mew smiled. "So as a Shadow Pokemon, you're horrible. You can't be overly violent for no reason whatsoever. But as a Pokemon's Shadow, you show their vicious side, what they are underneath everything. If you shadowed Mewtwo, you would be a Shadow Pokemon due to how much anger and hatred it still has. You shadowed me, however, so you're just that: a shadow."
Shadow Mewtwo looked down at itself. "Then... what am I to do?"
Mew giggled. "Back on my usual planet, there's a new kind of battling that's picking up steam. A tournament is being set up, with entries being sent in for assessment of competitors. Can't let someone who can't fight correctly join the tourney, but I think it might be exactly your kind of style."
Shadow Mewtwo looked at Mew with a very mild look of gratitude. "That sounds nice."
Twilight backed away as some shadow figures approached her and her friends. She looked in disbelief as the shadows got closer and she recognized them as her and her friends. There was even a Shadow Spike. "Okay... Not quite what I expected."
"Relax!" Pinkie bounced next to her. "We can see which is real this time, and now we have an equal number of ponies as they do." Shadow Applejack was blasted with magic from above. Looking up, they saw a changeling.
"I've already dealt with my copy. I'll try to provide aerial support." Voice Box dropped under Shadow Dash as she tried to ram Voice. "No promises with speedy over here, though."
"I'll deal with her." Rainbow flew after her duplicate, doing a somersault in midair to pick up speed before slamming into her at full speed.
Twilight pulled up a barrier to block her duplicate's magic. "All right, how did Darkrai fight me before? It used speed and control, as well as dodging my magic and responding with its own attacks." Twilight created one-way shields to limit her copy's magic, and fired through them to hit her foe. Applejack was just pounding at her clone as Rainbow slammed her shadow into the ground, while the Pinkies played a game of cards.
"Ha! Go fish!" Pinkie shouted triumphantly as her copy sighed and dissolved. Pinkie giggled as Rarity and Voice took out the false Rarity, and Fluttershy got a hug from her shadow.
"There, there. It will be okay. I'm sure things will end fine. Trust me." Shadow Fluttershy patted Fluttershy on the back.
"But how can you be sure?" Fluttershy looked over and saw Spike running over to Twilight, complaining about how his fire hurts.
"Because, dear Fluttershy, I took over the role of you from a willing participant." Fluttershy gasped as Shadow Fluttershy turned into a pony-sized Discord. "She was more than willing to let me handle the role of her, as she didn't really want to fight. Oh, and I needed a way to come back without raising too much suspicion."
"Then, you have the Elements?" Fluttershy squealed in joy when he pulled out the box. "I was kind of worried that you would be lying to us again, but you really were helping us."
Discord nodded. "Yes, well I learned how nice it feels to have someone who thought of me as a friend, as well as how much it hurt to have my body going around doing something quite different than I would. I suppose all I needed was to see things from the victim's perspective." Fluttershy grabbed the box and started to run to her friends. "Oh, Fluttershy? Hit the faker real good for me, okay?" She nodded before rejoining her friends, not seeing him teleport away to Canterlot.
Twilight let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "All right girls, its time to put this fake Discord away for good." The Elements of Harmony began charging as all the Pokemon got behind the ponies while Mew introducing Darkrai to Shadow Mewtwo and Victini.
"I will not let that happen!" Shadow Discord snarled as it fired a dark laser at the beam the Elements fired at it. The two collided, fracturing both in several directions. Part of the Harmony Beam vaporized part of Shadow Mewtwo's tail, while a splinter of Shadow Discord's laser cut through its left shoulder, leaving it screaming in pain. Various parts of both beams hit the ground, forcing them all closer together. Shadow Discord laughed. "Goodbye, all of you." It fired another black beam at the group, breaking through the barriers Mew put up. Twilight closed eyes and waited for the attack to hit.
When she looked up, she saw that it laser was being blocked by a new barrier, one made out of glowing hexagons. A being then teleported in behind the shield, facing both the laser and the shield. It looked vaguely like an Earth Pony, but only due to having no horn or wings. It had a completely different build, was floating, mostly white, a few feet taller than Princess Celestia, and had a yellow ring around its midsection. It raised its head, and the barrier folded out towards the beam, sending it back at Shadow Discord. Once the laser stopped, the large pony floated higher until it was eye level with Shadow Discord. "You." Shadow Discord yelled.
"Me. Got a problem with that?" The pony nodded towards his opponent. "Did you really think I would have missed you doing this? I knew the whole time. I put all the pieces in place to stop you, but you sent much more of your power here than I thought. That is when I knew I couldn't depend on them to finish you off. Mew has a lot of power. I have far more." Mew flew up to the pony, psychically bringing Shadow Mewtwo along.
"Arceus, do something. I promised it a life but I can't fix this. There was too much corruptive power in the blast for my limited reality control." Mew hugged Arceus as yellow crystals grew out of Shadow Mewtwo's shoulder, and its tail grew back and emitted a yellow glow.
"That is all I can do for those injuries. And now I will deal with you." Arceus turned back to Shadow Discord only to be consumed by a massive laser that corrupted to air around it into nothingness.
> Gods of Creation and Corruption
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside the laser, a bright light glowed.
"Did you really think that would do anything to me?" The laser suddenly stopped and compressed itself into an orb, which began to send rainbow lights out from it. "Even at your full power you were unable to defeat me, and this large fraction of your power was a siren song of weakening you."
"That is if you can beat me. But really, a disco ball?" Shadow Discord laughed. The ball exploded, sending green acid all over which stopped before hitting the ground, reformed all together and turned blue as it became a Vaporeon.
"I always have enjoyed rainbows. I've noticed your handiwork, and I've always had someone deal with it, to make it seem coincidental, turning a blind eye to the signs of your return. I came down for the reasons that I didn't think that these combatants could defeat you, and I could not afford to let you win. In short..." Arceus's ring turned blue, as did part of its body. Along with the watery Vaporeon, it used Hydro Pump to knock Shadow Discord around. "I came because I can't afford not to care anymore."
"Will you be quiet?!" Shadow Discord turned the water into a massive steel spike and tried to run Arceus through with it.
"The longer you've been growing your power, the less subtle you've gotten with your power." Arceus turned silver as it rammed the spike head on, shattering it. The pieces each became small Honedge which rushed Shadow Discord. In response, it created a massive bubble, trapping the Honedge. The Honedge each became winged fireballs, which tracked Arceus around.
"Burn and suffer, Arceus!" Shadow Discord roared even as the fireballs were turned into bricks which encased it inside a sphere. The bricks then turned into a humongous bowling ball, which rolled right towards Arceus.
"The Shadow Pokemon, I almost ignored. The humans could have done it, I believed." The giant ball shrunk into a seed which fell to the ground. A large stem shot up and burst into a flower right in front of Shadow Discord.
"Really? I must have done something clever with it. Let's stop stalling then, shall we?" The flower became a catapult which launched massive rocks before disappearing. The rocks froze in front of Arceus.
"After all, I was honestly a little surprised to find that the machines only worked because you were messing with them." The rocks slammed together and became a large frying pan, which swung at Shadow Discord. It passed through as a hole melted through the center and the rest molded into a cannon.
"You know, I stopped listening once you started talking." The cannon fired a large net before turning into a cage and appearing around Arceus. Arceus teleported out of both and both net and cage became a long rope.
"When I found that Entei, Raikou, and Suicune were affected, I suspected that something was wrong." The rope shot out at Shadow Discord, wrapping around it until it turned into a Rayquaza and flew right at Arceus. It tried to bite it before turning into confetti. The confetti began swirling around in a tornado that was wrapping around Shadow Discord.
"What part of I stopped listening have you forgotten?" Shadow Discord grabbed the open end of the twister and held it up towards Arceus. It suddenly began expelling flames.
"After all, how did those three get captured? Even then, how did they fail to escape?" The flames became a Moltres, which turned and flew at Shadow Discord. Moltres was dispelled back into a large fire, which quickly became a stone fist.
"What part of I stopped listening do you not understand?" The fist was launched at Arceus, where it broke into small pieces. These pieces began circling Arceus.
"After a trainer not only defeated those making them, but destroyed every piece of technology except for one, I assumed it was over." The stones flew at Shadow Discord, one after another. Snarling, Shadow Discord caught every single one.
"Are you choosing to ignore me? I don't care about your reasons!" It threw them around Arceus, and they broke open creating smoke all around Arceus. Soon after, the smoke solidified into an orb of steel.
"When Shadow Pokemon returned, and Shadow Moltres, Shadow Articuno, and Shadow Zapdos, there was more going on than any knew." The orb shattered into glass, and the shards flew straight for Shadow Discord.
"As I have already told you, I KNOW ALL THIS!" The glass disintegrated into tiny bees which swarmed Arceus. As they closed in, each of them exploded into a small firework.
"It was XD001 that showed me that you were involved. It had your marks all over it." The embers from the fireworks each began closing in on Shadow Discord, but were stopped and began moving in a ring around Shadow Discord.
"Why do you insist on telling me things I already know or could easily guess?" The spinning ring became pure fire, moving to around Arceus and closing in.
"After that, I began looking for more of your work. The Bittercold was the final proof that you were back at full power." Arceus backed out of the ring of fire, letting it keep spinning until it changed into a speaker. The speaker fired a massive sound wave at Shadow Discord, knocking it backward.
Shadow Discord growled. "Yes, I do believe that the Bittercold was some of my finest work." The speaker crumpled into a massive ball which launched at Arceus. The ball never reached it, instead dismantling itself piece by piece until it had completely disappeared.
"With that knowledge, I went to try to get rid of you once and for all. But you had also absorbed the power of the Sky Prism and broke it after you locked me out of Wish Park. I discovered it was the sort of prevention that, while I could force my way through it, it would weaken me enough for you to possibly remove me as an obstacle to your plans. After I removed myself from the Pokeparks, I found that you were influencing the actions and thoughts not only of every Pokemon in the Pokeparks, but of many Pokemon on different parts of the world. Therefore, I went to go find those that could easily break through your corruptive power. Finding the best candidates were not, in fact, Pokemon, I sent an exploration and rescue team to act as the ambassadors and as the introduction to Pokemon. However, another creature was trying to bring something from another world to the one I had my eye on, and as my power increased the spatial link between the two planets, it became more able to start pulling in random Pokemon. I was unwilling to stop this, as this would increase the knowledge of different kinds of Pokemon. I was also sure that you were using your power to send Legendary Pokemon to the other planet in an attempt to cause a distraction. To ensure nothing too disastrous happened, I sent Mew over, expecting it to act as friendly as it always does. I was forced to sent Deoxys and Jirachi when they were getting too close to finding you. If they did, you would have surely tried to remove them as possible threats. Given how Deoxys functions, especially in Defense Forme, almost anything you could use as an attack would not work, and it could even stand up to your Corruption Blast for minutes at a time; certainly something you would not want to put up with. You then sent a large percentage of your power into the mind of a creature with similar abilities to you, and pretended to be said creature to try and remove those I was going to use to get to you. You may have succeeded before I was able to stop you, but the call for help got the attention of the Legendary Pokemon here, and even called forth the one Pokemon I considered sending to stop you. Because of all of this, I did not intrude until they did, in fact, need my help." Arceus nodded. "And now that you have shown yourself, I can fight you. And to answer your question, I've been saying all of that so that all affected could learn why all this happened so that it will be easier for them to stop you."
Shadow Discord froze in shock. "You... You... ARGH!" It moved to attack the onlookers, but hit a barrier.
"Your fight is with me. And I believe it is time to enact Judgment." Shadow Discord snapped, but nothing happened. In a panic, it tried to fly up but hit the barrier again. "What, surprised that you can't escape? Victini, what is the name of that one spell in that game you play online with others that prevents teleportation?"
"Oh, you mean Grottoes and Goodra?" Victini started laughing. "You used a Dimensional Anchor?"
"With higher intensity, but the same basic idea. You thought I never paid attention when you started going on and on about this game or that one? But now is not the time for that." An orange orb grew above Arceus before shooting into the air where it burst into several orange streaks that arced down and into Shadow Discord. It took the hit hard, but still attempted to fight back. Arceus continued the assault while looking back. "Charge up your Elements and hit me with them."
"What? That won't help!" Twilight yelled up at it.
"Yes, it will. I am able to absorb the energy of the Elements of Harmony and can use that to power my Judgment with the Harmony Magic to break through the Chaos Magic allowing it to survive against me." Arceus said, far calmer than it should have been.
"If you're so certain, then alright." The Elements fired another Harmony Beam, but this time it hit Arceus. Arceus began to glow with rainbow light.
"Judgement will be unleashed." Arceus whispered, almost silently. The assault stopped momentarily, but before Shadow Discord could recover a massive rainbow beam wrapped around it. When Arceus stopped, Shadow Discord was gone. "Good. Destroying that much of its power has severely weakened it, but there is not a minute to lose." Arceus landed on the ground as Mew flew over to it.
"This was you? You caused Pokemon to start coming here? You sent me here without warning me that it was back?" Arceus nodded. "And it never crossed your mind that I could easily help you and be prepared for it instead of piecing it together at the last second, after it already destroyed much of Canterlot?"
"No. Honestly, I expected that if I told you, you'd be stressed to the point of acting irrationally." Arceus turned away from Mew and walked over to Twilight. "You are the leader of your group of friends, yes?"
"Well, none of us are in charge, so no." She raised an eyebrow. "Why wou-"
Arceus interrupted. "Are you the one who usually comes up with the plan?"
"Yes, but-" She started.
Arceus cut her off again. "Are you the one who tends to fix issues between your friends?"
"I am, but I-" She tried to say.
Arceus ignored her trying to speak. "If you went to go do something, would they follow you to help?"
"Probably, but that-" Twilight was getting annoyed now.
Arceus nodded. "Then you are, unofficially, the leader." Arceus lowered its head and bowed. "I am grateful that you and your friends were so accepting of the Pokemon. I assume you heard everything that was said during the fight?"
"Yes, and?"
"I am in need of the assistance of you and your friends. It is still alive, and will not stop trying to remove everything from existence until it either succeeds or perishes. Your Elements of Harmony, as well as your abilities to make and keep friends are the keys to fixing the Sky Prism and defeating it once and for all."
"Um, Mr. Arceus?" Fluttershy shrank when Arceus looked at her. "What is it? I mean, we know it's a being of chaos and destruction and corruption, but what is its name?"
Arceus fell silent. After a short time it sighed. "It was the first being I ever created. I needed a being to counteract me, to be able to destroy things when they go too far, to be able to cause the struggles that cause evolution. Alongside it, I created Mew, who could keep up with us and would be able to use anything we could against us, as well as be the creativity for what we make. I made it powerful, but after eons, something changed about it. It began to take my creations and distort them in such a way that they began to corrupt everything around them. It also turned my creations against each other by a strange sort of mind control, allowing them to destroy themselves. When Mew and I finally determined that we had to take it down, it was a fight we couldn't lose. However, it had gotten so powerful from the corruption and the conflict that it was able to destroy everything we had created." Arceus looked down, looking rather sad. "When we were finally able to defeat it, it didn't get destroyed by our attacks. It threatened that it would corrupt everything we ever made, it would cause changes that would be inexplicable, and that any who tried to solve it would fight over differing theories, from which it would gain power and return. We trapped it in another dimension and I created Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina to keep the dimension out of sync with any others by keeping it out of time with everything else. Any breaches were to be shut immediately, and Giratina was to, in secret, observe the dimension and report to me any issues. That is why Giratina lives in the Reverse World, so that it cannot be distracted and can observe everything in peace. However, it was still able to cause some influence. It is the reason Pokemon evolve like they do instead of growing naturally, and how when Pokemon breed they are almost always near-copies of their mother instead of being a mixture of father and mother. It lived up to its threat, and scientists eventually began to call the Evolution Glitch by a name it approved of: Missingno."
Fluttershy came over and patted Arceus on the shoulder. "You did what you had to, and as much as you could."
"Thank you. But there is much that needs to be done. Are you all ready to go?"
"No."
Arceus turned towards the voice, coming from a short distance away. Standing there was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, with Discord hovering overhead. "Princess Celestia. Did you just say no?"
"Yes, I did." Celestia walked over to Arceus. "I'm sorry, but your plan is insane. Twilight and her friends could get seriously injured or killed trying to do what you ask of them, and I cannot allow it."
Arceus laughed. "I do not recall asking your permission. You did raise a good point, and I should have mentioned it earlier. The Legendary Pokemon have already secured most of the Pokeparks and will be able to provide assistance as needed. Speaking of..." Arceus looked at the assembled Legendaries. "Regigigas, you chose to go to the Granite Zone. Tornadus, go to the Crag Area. Regice, you shall go to the Unawarehouse in the Tech Area. Meloetta, go to the house in the Haunted Zone. Deoxys and Genesect are to go to the Meeting Place. Darkrai, take Dusknoir's attraction and Prism Piece. Jirachi, do the same with the Vine Swing." Assorted portals appeared and the Legendaries went into them, leaving Keldeo, Mew, and Victini behind.
"What about us?" Keldeo complained. "We can help!"
"You and the Trailblazers are going to travel with Twilight and her friends." Arceus said, chuckling at Blitzle's massive grin.
"No."
Arceus turned towards the voice. It was Wigglytuff. "I refuse to allow the Trailblazers to go through with this. Not only is this a much larger undertaking than either of them-"
"The three of us." Ponyta said as Sableye jumped up and down.
"Than the three of them have ever done, but the Guild and most other teams have been looking for them for a while. The biggest reason, however, is something else." Wigglytuff then got a huge grin. "The rest of the guild would be jealous that they can't join. They can only go if anything that wishes to help is brought to the Pokeparks to be able to help in some form or another."
Mew raised an eyebrow. "How do you define anything?"
"Anything. As in, Pokemon, Pony, Dragon, whatever Discord is, ANYTHING." Wigglytuff crossed its arms. "That is my one condition and it must be followed if you want the Trailblazers to go."
Arceus nodded. "Very well. Any creature, living, dead, undead, construct, illusion, et cetera that wishes to help, assist, provide aid, stop Missingno, et cetera will be brought to the Pokeparks in order to try and help, assist, provide aid, stop Missingno, et cetera. Is that sufficient?"
Wigglytuff nodded happily. "Yup. Mind if I let the Guild know so that they can choose?"
Arceus opened a portal as Mew flew over to Wigglytuff. "I checked and I'm a bit confused at how the Guild's base is both here and in Treasure Town."
Chatot hopped to the portal. "Perhaps the insides duplicated, but the grate and tent were brought with us. I wouldn't be surprised if Wigglytuff put up a new tent and grate after the ones that had been there disappeared." Wigglytuff nodded in agreement before going through the portal. Diglett and Chatot followed Team Charm, Skull, Cascade, and Sneaky through the portal, but Bidoof ran over to Blitzle and gave him a hug.
"Keep safe, okay? I don't need you guys to be gone for good this time"
"Bidoof, I'm the one who should be warning you." Blitzle patted him on the back. "Don't worry, we'll be fine." Bidoof smiled, nodded, and ran through the portal. Absol looked at the group before locking eyes with Arceus and nodding. Absol tuned and entered the portal before it closed.
Arceus nodded. "A little bit of clarity for your mission. There are two central areas in the Pokeparks. The Meeting Place for the zone half, and Cove Town for the area half. You will first go to the Zones, making friends, clearing attractions, and bringing the Pokemon back together to fix the Sky Prism. Doing that will make it safe for you to enter the Wish Park, which you will access in the Areas. In Wish Park, you will need to ring the Wish Bell in the four zones, freeing it from Missingno's influence. Doing so will drain it of any more power it may try to use to recover. Be warned, however. Missingno will not let you proceed without conflict. It has already corrupted most of the Pokemon in the Pokepark in one way or another, and I expect it will send more Shadow Pokemon, Corrupted Pokemon, or Glitched Pokemon to try and stop you. Are you ready to begin training?"
Mew looked at Arceus. "Training? Arceus, we don't have time-"
"Actually, I do have time." Standing there was a massive blue creature with four legs and a tall head. It seemed to have white armor on its back, head, chest, and feet. Next to it floated a black and grey Abra. "Dialga, Temporal Pokemon. Time is my specialty, and all practice needed will take place within what feels like instants. Palkia, Giratina, and I have been selected to train you more effectively in battle and skill games. Come with us."
Arceus nodded. "Impeccable timing as always, Dialga. Go with it to the Reverse World to gain an edge on Missingno."
Twilight looked cautiously at Dialga. "Is it safe?"
Mew smiled. "One hundred percent."
Twilight looked at Mew. "What will happen here while we are gone?"
"Twilight..." Princess Luna walked over to her. "I promise everything will be fine in Equestria. If Missingno plans on destroying everything, how Equestria is doing is the least of our concern, as it should be yours."
"But what if-"
Princess Celestia cut her off. "Twilight. Equestria can handle not having you and your friends for a while. Besides, if anything happens we can just contact you through Spike." Celestia looked at Arceus critically. "He will be going with them, correct?"
"I wouldn't dream of him not participating. We are out of time. Dialga, take them to the Reverse World."
"Wait wait wait wait wait." Victini looked a little frantic. "Do I have time to go on my streaming? I've been gone a long time and people might worry about me." Arceus gave it a stern look and Victini pouted. "Fine. I do have to wonder how Twitch is doing without me..."
Arceus gave a frustrated grunt. "If there are no interruptions, Dialga, are you ready to go?"
Dialga nodded. "Of course. We have all of time to waste." It glanced at the Abra. "Arbah, are you prepared?"
Arbah nodded, telekinetically pulling Blitzle, Ponyta, Sableye, Keldeo, Victini, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow over to it. Then they, Dialga, and Arbah disappeared.
Shadow Mewtwo, who had been surprisingly quiet for a while, spoke up. "That happened way too fast."
Arceus shook its head. "Nay. It took too long. Mew, take Shadow Mewtwo and give it somewhere safe to train and practice its skills and then come to the Sky Pavilion. They should be arriving in the Pokeparks shortly, so we have to get to work."
Discord raised an eyebrow. "They were just taken to the Reverse World to be trained. How are they already almost there? I don't make sense and even I can't understand it."
"Dialga is the Pokemon in control of Time. Control of the flow or lack thereof." Mew giggled. "Forward, backward, stopping it entirely except for one particular dimension, easy."
Discord considered. "That's clever. If you don't mind, I would like to go have a look at the Pokeparks. See what I can do, know what I mean?"
Even as the princesses shared concerned looks, Mew nodded. "Alright, you can go. But you have to check in with Deoxys once you arrive and let us know of anything unusual." Discord started to open his mouth and it continued. "Other than you."
"Yes!" Discord pumped his fist. "I get to mess with the Pokeparks! I get to mess with the Pokeparks!"
"You get to help the Pokeparks." Celestia corrected. "Arceus, promise me that you will keep us informed."
"It is only reasonable. What if you need to contact me in case another Pokemon arrives?"
Mew gasped. "OH! That reminds me! Arceus, we need to remove the Thunderclaps from here!" Arceus raised an eyebrow. "Pokemon gang." Mew teleported away, only to return very quickly. "They broke out. More likely, they were broken out. The point is, they're free and that is a problem."
Luna nodded. "They are an issue that must be dealt with. We will send the Royal Guard after them, but Pokemon have appeared to be more capable when dealing with other Pokemon. As for communications, why not just keep a portal open?"
Mew shook its head. "Something could sneak through."
Celestia thought. "I could enchant a pair of books to each other so that when one is written in it the words appear on the other." A pair of thick notebooks, one with Celestia, Solgaleo, and Ho-oh and one with Luna, Darkrai, and Cresselia appeared.
"Please do." Arceus glanced at the looks it was getting. "What? It's a sun and moon motif. I'm allowed to be creative, it's just usually Mew's job." Celestia smiled as she put magic into the notebooks. After she nodded, Arceus turned towards a portal. "The best of luck, princesses. I will see who can help you deal with the gang." It and Mew went through the portal with the moon notebook, closing the portal behind them.


-----------------------


Dialga, Controller of Time, stood in the Reverse World looking out. It wasn't looking at anything, rather looking at sometime. It looked into the future to see what would become of the quest. It only gathered bits and pieces of time, but it learned much from those snapshots.


"All right, let's put it to vote. Find Victini or not?"

"Well then. Applejack, you've got my strength at your beck and call." Torterra chuckled. "To be honest, I haven't had a good test of strength with another since Chesnaught headed out to the Granite Zone for some answers."

The male glanced up at the Golurk winding up for another punch. Knowing that his Pokemon couldn't take another hit like that, he nodded. "After all I've done, not a bad way to go." He ran towards the Golurk and got in front of the punch as it came down.

"Keldeo! Victini! There's a piano in here, and it's playing along with me!" Meloetta looked overjoyed. "I think that a Rotom is in there, but it has a good ear."

Keldeo stomped its hoof and looked at its three mentors with a look of rage. "Let's see if the student has finally surpassed the teachers, shall we?"

"Who, me? I'm nothing special. Ex-criminal, hero of Orre, master battle strategist, breaker of league rules, powerful trainer, the only thing keeping these Pokemon out of the Scientorium and Wish Park." He pointed and vines shot up from the ground to tangle the attackers. He smirked at the look of surprise on Twilight's face. "Oh, and Celebi's best friend. Was that important?"

"Don't you get it?" The Lava Dome Pokemon laughed at the group. "I'm going to detonate the volcano with you in it!"

"Come, Ponyta. We have much to discuss about Truth." The flames died down as the voice spoke. "As we do so, I will battle you to see if you can handle the truth. Win or lose, show me your spirit."

The Espeon hardly flinched as she ripped the Machamp into pieces with Psychic. "What a waste of my time."

"You all seem so confused. Perhaps I can be of assistance." Discord appeared before them, laughing. "Surprise!"

"I agree with Pinkie. It's time for a party on the beach!" Victini set some driftwood ablaze. "Besides, this will make these Pokemon more friendly with us and one another, and that's our mission alongside clearing the attractions for the Sky Prism Pieces."

"Do you dare to fight for your ideals?" Blitzle began sparking up, smirking at his opponent. "Very well. Face me and show me how much your ideals truly mean to you."

Flygon slammed into a Snorlax, who stopped it from attacking. Another being stepped towards the Dragon-Ground type. "Cool it. They've done nothing to you." Grumbling, it flew off. The being turned to Keldeo and knelt down to its height. "Sorry about that. Even up here in the Granite Zone has been affected by Missingno. Mew asked if I could come keep the peace, and I figured I could help. The name's Red."

"You destroyed my brothers!" The voice was so loud and powerful that the blizzard intensified. Yellow eyes glowed from behind the snowfall. "Now I will destroy you!"

"Query: Hey dudes, wanna go skateboards?"

"Ampharos, Medicham, Altaria, Heracross, Absol, Houndoom, Metagross, Tyranitar!" The Pokemon glanced at him briefly before nodding. "Mega Evolve!"

"So let's do a headcount here. Sharon, a crazy quick thinker with a Metagross and Pokemon who get stronger the more they attack together; Ross, who sees the world as one big puzzle and sees how to solve it alongside Machamp with Steadfast as an ability even though it seems to have a one-way No Guard; and me, Favored by Mew, a toy maker with a Smeargle powered by Arceus whose paintings can change reality and you, sir, managed to be such a nuisance that all three of us were brought to deal with you. So, are you still so certain that you're going to win?"

"The answer is unclear. Missingno's directly influencing events, so I am having trouble seeing through time in more than snippets here or there. Thank you for the information about how the Sky Prism Pieces recharge with power. Note to self: The Sky Prism Pieces can only be recharged how Palkia had guessed, but let Palkia explain its guess and let that be the assumption." Dialga nodded despite the strange looks it was getting. "Now go clear Venusaur's Vine Swing and make friends with the rest of the Meadow Zone. One last thing: Applejack, get the help of Torterra. He's the closest thing Venusaur has to a friend that's in the Meadow Zone, and his strength will prove useful in getting through the gate barricading Venusaur in his room."