Celestia watched and listened for some time afterwards, but was rewarded with only the sound of Hoothoot and Noctowl calling out through the night air. Eventually, she caught the sound of two different sets of footsteps crushing fallen leaves, going in opposite directions. One was lighter and swifter, while the other moved with a slower and more purposeful gate. Celestia decided that the latter would be Lysandre. After a quick internal debate, she decided to tail him again, just to see if he would do anything else she should know about.
As she followed in the air, Celestia pondered whether or not it would be a good idea to jump the man on the spot. Even with only one reliable attack, she was still stronger and likely to get the drop on him before he could call out a Pokemon. If he was the driving force behind whatever Team Flare intended to do, perhaps taking him out would put an end to the whole situation before it could truly begin.
But… then what would she do? Kill him? On the basis of half-heard whispers and likely exaggerated rumors of an ultimate weapon? Premonitions were valuable, but they weren’t exactly considered admissible proof by the Equestrian legal system. She still didn’t have a positive confirmation of the existence of a Dark Ball in Lysandre’s possession. The most she had was probable intent to rob a factory which, while criminal, was not worthy of a summary and impromptu execution. Capital punishment was for the worst of the worst, in extreme situations – at times she had flirted with banning it entirely.
Attempt to imprison him? She couldn’t, not here, and from Alakazam’s reaction the legal authorities weren’t likely to believe the word of a random Pokemon against his. Hand him over to Team Rocket? She wasn’t sure how much she trusted them, even if they believed her conviction of the man’s identity. The trio she was with seemed mostly alright, but this Giovanni might be another matter. It wouldn’t be morally right to deliver someone into an unknown fate like that. It was a question of the ends justifying the means, and for the moment Celestia made the executive decision that they didn’t.
Thought the princess followed Lysandre from a distance as he walked out of the forest and back to Laverre, she didn’t see anything more suspicious. He stopped at a cafe, ordered a pastry and warm milk, tipped generously, and then returned to his hotel. Shortly thereafter, he closed the curtains and the lights went out in his room. Though Celestia kept a vigil for nearly an hour, no more activity was evident.
Eventually, feeling tired, the princess sighed and took flight, giving up for the night. She needed to get some rest. But first, Team Rocket needed to hear what she had learned.
As the moon hung high overhead, Luna continued her journey through the dark and murky swamp. It had been almost an hour since she had been poisoned by Vileplume, and the effects by now were thoroughly set in. Her heart beat faster and faster inside her chest, forcing the princess to pant just to keep herself oxygenated. Her muscles burned with every expansion and contraction, as though being eaten alive from within. Her legs quivered and threatened to give out, with only willpower and adrenaline to keep them going. Most alarmingly, Luna’s vision was starting to blur, fading in and out in random segments. No matter how much she blinked her eyes to try and clear them, they continued to deteriorate. Even the insect cloud was now gone, as if sensing her polluted blood and refusing to drink it.
Though her limbs were aching and her body cried out for rest, Luna knew that had no choice but to press on. That Haunter – may the gods forever curse her name – had been right. The princess could feel the Vileplume’s toxins coursing through her bloodstream, eating into more of her flesh with every passing minute. Had she had her magic, Luna had spells enough to neutralize any kind of venom imaginable, and some that weren’t (except by Discord). As it was, the princess feared that if she laid herself down to rest, she would never wake up again. That wasn’t, of course, to say that she hadn’t been trying to magically cure herself along the way.
“Come on… Come on…” Luna’s eyes were screwed shut as she tried to focus her power into her horn. “Come on…” She gritted her teeth. “Urrrrrrggggghhhhhh…”
Nothing happened.
“BAH!” Luna threw her hooves up in disgust, then immediately regretted it as the muscles inside burned and screamed. More infuriated now than ever but lacking a tangible target to turn herself against, she spitefully crushed a random reed as she passed. It was just so frustrating! She still had her power deep within herself, she could feel it. With the right spell, it could turned inwards to sear the poison from her veins and restore her to her full glory. But it just. Wouldn’t. WORK!
Snarling, Luna crashed indiscriminately through the riverside forestry, scattering enormous insectile creatures and little water-bound things alike. She had to find help. It was, however damaging to her pride, the only solution she could think of at the moment. Sapient creatures existed on this world. There must be a civilization somewhere – or at least someone who would know how to deal with this poison. And something for the Haunter presently flashing her what she presumed to be an obscene gesture from the river’s opposite bank would be nice too.
From the forces of frustration and wounded pride, tinged with the slightest bit of fear, the princess found the energy to redouble her efforts. Dulled vision hampered her ability to work around obstacles, so she compensated by simply smashing through them like a wrecking ball. Whatever had been done to her magic, her strength remained. Luna crushed paths through the muddy reeds, shoved aside rocks half as large as herself, and at one point crossed a ravine by kicking a tree down over it. Throughout the whole endeavor her body was wracked with pain and occasional spams, but she endured it with all the patient stoicism of one who has endured a thousand years of solitude on a barren rock. Luna’s pride would not permit anything less.
The princess didn’t know how long she kept up her impromptu demolition derby, partially from inattention and partially because of the blinding agony coursing through her. She couldn’t afford to pay attention to much that wasn’t directly in front of her, and so she didn’t. It therefore came as something of a shock to her when she heard another’s voice.
“Sweet Arceus in heaven, lady!” it shouted in a strangely chirping tone. “What in the blazes are you doing?!”
“Huh?” Luna paused mid-step, her head swiveling towards this newcomer.
Squinting against the blurring and random flashes of color plaguing her vision, she managed to make out what looked to be a large, four-limbed white insect. Its front two limbs were brown and clawed, with its two hind ones resembling more typical insect legs. It also sported a pair of tiny wings that were buzzing irritably.
“Who… are you?” she asked, finding her voice surprisingly weak and scratchy.
“Name’s Nincada. Now, what the heck are you doing to my burrow!”
“Your burrow?”
“You just knocked over the tree I had built it in!” Nincada’s tiny wing buzzed furiously, though they did not lift it from the ground.
“…Oh,” Luna paused, her toxin-riddled brain seeming hesitant to think too fast. “Wait!” her face brightened. “You can help me!”
“Why would I do that?!” its tone was incredulous. “You just ruined my home and now I have to go and dig a new one before molting season! You have any idea how much work went into that! I should just give you a taste of my Metal Claw right now! Yeah!” Nincada stepped forward, raising one brown claw at Luna, which quickly turned silver. “Now you had better-”
“Let me see if I understand you: you run into a being more than quadruple your size, capable of flattening your home without even noticing. And your first response… is to threaten this being?”
“Um…”
“Can you really see that ending well for you?”
“Well I-”
“And I should add that I’m in quite the bad mood tonight. Giving me a target for my anger isn’t likely to do you any favors.”
“Well… when you put it like that…” Nincada took an uneasy step backwards.
“On the other hoof, if you’ll cooperate I give you my word that I will help you restore your dwelling place.”
“Wait…” Nincada’s antennae twitched. “Really?”
“’Tis only just,” Luna confirmed with a nod, despite the sharp jab of pain that went through her neck. “A princess should honor her debts.”
“You’re not just going to try and eat me?”
“Eat a sapient creature!” Luna’s face was aghast. “What do you take us for, some kind of monstrous barbarian?!”
“Well…” Nincada glanced behind her, at the crushed remains of its burrow.
Luna sighed and opened her jaw to display her teeth. “Herbivore.”
“…Looks that way,” it said after a quick look. “Alright, what kind of help do you need?”
“I’m looking for medical attention. I was attacked and poisoned by someone called Vileplume and I need you to show me the nearest-”
“Oh,” Nincada interrupted. “Just poisoned? That’s all?” Its mouth parts clicked.
“It’s no small matter! I may well be dying!”
“Meh,” Nincada held its claws up as if shrugging. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Why you little…” Luna snarled and started forward. An attentive observer would have noticed a slight sharpening of her wing feathers.
Nincada backpedaled hurriedly. “No, wait!” it called out, displaying empty claws. “I mean it isn’t a big deal because it can be cured easily!”
The princess paused. “It can?”
“Yes! Yes!” Nincada nodded frantically. “There’s a Pecha Berry tree not a quarter of a mile from here! That can heal you!”
“You’re certain of this?”
“Absolutely! Pecha Berries can easily cure any kind of poison! It’s just a little one, but it has a couple of fruits on it.”
“If they’re so valuable, why hasn’t anyone else eaten them?”
“They would have, ‘cept,” Nincada brushed a claw across its chest and looked at it. “Only I know where it is, see? But if you’ll help me rebuild my burrow – and not squish me – I’ll show you where it is.”
Luna considered briefly. It could be a trick – this Nincada had a good reason to be angry with her, to try and lead her to her doom. On the other hoof, the pounding of her increasingly-frantic heart and the burning she could feel from inside reminded her that she hadn’t much to lose. Nincada was the only native she’d yet encountered that didn’t attack her on sight, and it said that it had a cure. There was no guarantee she’d find any others before the poison claimed her.
“Very well. Take me to this tree.”
“Come on, come on,” Nincada said as it scurried through the underbrush. “Move along, lady!”
“It’s Luna,” the princess said as she trampled another bush. “And I’m going as fast as I can!”
“Yeah, well maybe you could try not being a great lumbering Snorlax and destroying everything in sight.”
“I… don’t see so well,” Luna lied slightly. She didn’t want this creature to think her too weakened by the poison.
“Yeah, well don’t blame me if you get the local Houndoom on your trail.” Nincada clicked. “Course, they prefer the drier bits of the forest, but still…”
“How much further?”
“I’d say… about ten feet to your left, oh sightless wonder.”
Luna gritted her teeth to check the impulse to snap back. Instead, she glanced to her left as indicated, but saw nothing but a green-black blur filled with oddly-shaped blobs. Shaking her head and blinking restored the slightest bit of clarity, allowing her to distinguish individual trees.
“Which one is it?”
“What, you’ve never seen a Pecha Berry tree before?” Nincada’s tone was incredulous.
“Please, just tell me.”
“The one with the half-dozen pink berries hanging from it, what do you think?”
“…And which one is that?”
“What, do I have to spoon-feed you?!” the little bug creature scattered to the base of one of the blobs. “This one!”
“Thank you.” Luna started towards it.
“How did you even survive this long if you can’t even-”
Nincada was cut off by what appeared to Luna to be a passing flash of purple that made her fur stand on end. There was a small explosion, and then the princess felt a few hot twigs bouncing off of her coat. Her ears pricked up at the sound of all too familiar mocking laughter.
“Hahahaha!” Haunter laughed from somewhere. “Nice try, little morsel.”
“EAT HER!” Nincada screamed. The next moment, Luna heard it skittering through the undergrowth in the opposite direction.
“You coward,” Luna growled under her breath.
“So close, and yet so far,” Haunter taunted. “Too bad, looks like you’re going to die after all.”
“Come out and face me, you cowering wretch!” Luna shouted into the wind. “Even now I do not fear you!”
“Let me think about that. Hmmm… Nah! Hahahahahahaha!”
With that, Haunter was gone.
An Update! HUZZAH!
Luna just can't catch a break.
Luna.... nooooo.
Too much teasing for a resolution on the Luna front. :| Chapter seems to end too abruptly.
May I say what I think the Alicorns are as a Pokemon?
I think there each a physic, on account of their magic, and flying, on account of their wings.
If they were true Pokemon, the alicorns evaluation would start as Twilight, then (pretending Candence is there) Candence, then Luna, and Celestia would be the final forum.
What do you think?
6180384
That is, for the record, intentional. The abrupt cutoff compliments Luna's abruptly destroyed antidote, and of course Haunter's hit and run tactics.
Aaannd you lost me with this one. This is just redundently cruel and doesn't really seem to be going anywhere on Luna's end to justify it. Being that it seems you just plan on torturing Luna for the sake of 'Drama' I'm out. You can drum up reliable drama without establishing a will she die or won't she cliffhanger pile, hell as it was we had all the drama needed with the whole, vision of a Dark ball thing.
But, as it is it's just adding more things that are unnessecary beyond just showing the Pokemon world isn't sunshine and rainbows, which is brutally obvious to anyone old enough to ask questions about the Pokedex entries. This isn't even counting the fact that the reason the anime never did a long running adaptation of the official manga was due to that very reason. Giovonni actually tries to kill Red in Sapphron City but, doesn't get the chance to due to the police showing up if I remember correctly.
But, back to actual critisism. I don't see how Luna has any relevance to the plot beyond kicking her when she's down more than the fandom at large does to Scootaloo and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth bad enough to warrent a dislike and me no longer being willing to vest interest into this story.
tl;dr Disliking for pointless character abuse for the sake of 'drama' that is easily done elsewhere which is a failiure of creative writing as it's oin par with beating a puppy in a story for the same reason and that's just tasteless
Haunter is a dick.
I've enjoyed the story far, but this was a pretty weak chapter. Nothing really... happened. Celestia walked around. Luna walked around. That's about it.
That doesn't make the whole story bad. I just hope something interesting happens in the next chapter.
Poor Luna, her and Twilight have gotten the worse of this.
6180459 You've got points. Luna could and should have stayed back in Equestria. This story was labeled CELESTIA'S ROCKET ADVENTURE. At this point it should be Princesses Pokemon Adventure.
Seriously author you are dragging Luna's arc WAY too long.
Good chapter, but this Haunter is beginning to annoy me. Hope the bitch gets her comeuppance soon.
Starting to realllyyyy hate that Hunter now, reminding me of another story with a villain that is cowardly and the main characters can't fight due to said cowardness.
Regardless hope this doesn't end up spinning its wheels like that other story does, so far you spun your wheels in place once -no real plot development here- but it just for this and chapter so it isn't too bad. But yeah it does seem you like to kick these ponies when they are down...
I mean the fact they are having such an insanely hard time using ANY move is kinda odd, figure they could do at least tackle....or the like. As the princesses are not idiots...two are very old so have wisdom on their side that should help them with figuring out the process faster. While Twilight is...I guess the Nicola Tesla of her time. -I peg Starswirl as the Leonardo da Vinci of his time.- Which would help her figure stuff out, but we haven't seen much of twilight up and about so she is excused. I couldn't very well see her figuring anything out while getting mauled by a Houndoom pack.
But eh I guess making them have such a hard time is just a way of making the story last longer and such so just gonna wait and see how this goes.
6180853 agreed I hope it gets eaten
And people wonder why I keep a pokemon with Heal Bell on my team...
Hunter is an asshole. Poor Luna still has to fight against her poison. I really hope, she kicks his ass someday.
I think it's the author who decides which characters appear or don't appear in their story. The reader can just suggest and like or not.
I can't wait to see Twilight wake up.
And I still hope to see the darkball turning out to be containing the pink pony princess.
i hope celestia meets luna soon
Really, metal claw? It's first though when seeing a pokemon that's (obviously) a dark type is to use metal claw and not x-scissor, really?
(even though metal claw might be super effective if Luna is a fairy type as well - though x-scissor is both stronger and gets STAB)
6181045 Haunter would be worse if, like every self respecting poison type, it carried a poison move: sludge bomb for example which, if Luna is a Fairy/Dark type, would be super effective.
6181340 Reason for that might be that Nincada doesn't learn X-Scissor normally, it has to use a TM for that
6181401 Wait, seriously. Huh. It learns metal claw at lv. 21, and leech life at lv. 5. Leech life is actually stronger (if Luna isn't a fairy type) than metal claw because 20*1.5*2 = 60 > 50. Also, bug bite is an egg move, with a power of 60 (more than Metal Claw's 50). Though I thought we were going off anime rules. If so, X-Scissor is viable. Also, it'd have had longer to practice Leech Life so by both anime and (the new) mystery dungeon logic, it'd be stronger.
That said, yeah, Metal Claw is likely the highest level move it knows and it does want to scare Luna away.
6180993 she maybe technically a pokemon but still she outwardly appears unchanged thus her magic should be of use. the Element of Magic seemed unaffected by going through.
I don't get it. She knows she can be healed by calling on moonlight, right? Wouldn't that reset the clock on poison damage effectively? Or am I misunderstanding poison or whatever Moonlight does in Pokemon.
You really love to torture ponies don't you?
6181007 Rewatch the first episode, they clearly said that she was sealed inside the moon. The comics are NOT canon!
6181830
The comics (if I recall) are labeled as canon unless the show overwrites.
On another note... Can we please skip the story 'twists' wherein Luna gets captured in a dark ball, sent out as Nightmare Moon, and ends up fighting Celestia and/or Twilight?
And on a similar note the one where some nonsense forces Twilight into fighting Celestia?
Aw man, that Nincada...
Luna could very well be on her last legs right now.
So Haunter can use shadow ball to do the job of Cut, but Luna can't use Moonlight outside of combat to keep her health up?
6182803 You have a point...
6180394
Celestia is already confirmed as Fire/Fairy by Ash's pokedex.
6182056
Officially, the comics are "separate" from the show, but they aren't explicitly non-canon. There was one unspecified comic story arc which Hasbro vetoed because it was already planned to be in the show.
So basically, the events in the comics are unlikely to pop up in the show, and the show gets priority for stories, but that doesn't mean the comics didn't happen.
6180459
At east I am not the only one who sees that there is problems, some major, with this story.
The pacing is horrid, the writing is decent bordering on sub-par (as I have seen so many spelling and grammatical errors that could easily be changed with a single read over; not to mention omissions of entire words), the plot is somewhat interesting but being bogged down in trying to have too much happen at the same time, and the characters are senselessly being beaten down "for drama".
I began to read this for two reasons. One, I needed a break from "Fallout Equestria" and, two, the premise sounded interesting. Celestia gets sent to the Pokemon world and ends up being captured by Team Rocket!? Well this certainly spells out shenanigans!
I'm going to continue reading this, as you never know if a story will suddenly surprise you at some point, but at the current time of writing this . . . I doubt it.
I can't wait to see a restored Luna torture that Haunter until it wishes it could die again.
That blasted Haunter! Once Luna gets her strength back...
The word you're looking for is gait.
Missing a word: "it could be turned inwards."