Chapter Seventeen: The Meddlers Three

Castelia City came into full view, its lit skyscrapers dominating our view as we crossed the bridge. I began to notice similarities to our first foray into another universe other than Equestria or mine. Firstly, they were both video game universes, and role-playing games, second, they were both favorites of mine, third, both have a missing human in the midst of them, and fourth, being in a position to do something significant. That is, if this resurgence of Team Plasma was a major crisis as The Master's new army was. I began to suspect that Discord had picked these universes because of me. As part of his game, of course. As Rainbow had said before, he should get a better sense of humor. But it now seemed more than likely, almost certain, that this was no coincidence, and Discord may have set this all up before we came here. All part of his games.

"So this is... Castelia City? City of grandeur?" Twilight asked, reading the sign at the entrance of the city, and not recognizing the name. I hadn't really recounted many city names of this universe, as I couldn't remember a good number of them with great clarity.

"Kind of like the capital, it's one of the largest cities. This place has one of the highest populations of all cities that have appeared in the video games to date, housing about... a hundred and twenty people, I think," I explained.

"That's not very many. I know for sure that Ponyville has more ponies in it than that, I've counted the houses, there's like... a hundred of 'em," Rainbow said.

"I know. There really aren't very many humans in this world, as I said. Even my hometown has over twenty-five thousand people living in it," I said, "and it's not even considered a 'city'."

"Wow. There didn't seem to be so many humans there when I went there with you," Twilight said.

"Those were the suburbs, for the most part, the least dense part of town," I explained. I yawned. It was getting late.

"Where are we going to sleep? We don't have any money, do we?" Fluttershy asked, all of us noticing now that Spike was asleep on Twilight's back.

"No, we don't have any money. Let's go back to Equestria for tonight," I suggested, and focussed on opening my portal.

"Wait, shouldn't we do this out of sight, somewhere?" Twilight interrupted. I nodded, and led us into an alley. There, I opened my portal and we went through. No problem.

On the other side, we found ourselves in the middle of the Everfree Forest. We looked nervously around, checking our surroundings carefully for any danger.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Twilight pulled the words right out of my mouth.

"Where should we go?" Rainbow asked.

"Seems like Castelia's alleys are the only option." I opened the portal again, and left the eerily dark and forboding forest behind us, again appearing in Castelia City's alley. We went to the end, tried to make ourselves confortable in the less-than-great conditions, and tried to fall asleep.

*****

I woke up to a noise, and looked around the corner of the dumpster I was laying against. There, standing in front of a struggling Rainbow Dash, bound in a net with duct tape over her mouth, were three individuals I'd never thought I'd ever see. It was James, Jessie, and Meowth, from the televised anime series. I got to my feet. They noticed my surprise and tried to start their introduction routine.

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie said. I facepalmed.

"Make it double!" James continued.

"To-"

"Shut up, I know who you are, let my friend go," I interrupted. They looked at me with distaste.

"What are you going to do to stop us, twerp?" Jesse laughed. I turned around, picked up my backpack, and set it upon the dumpster, opening its pockets.

"What's he doin'? We've got all of his Pokémon," Meowth said.

"I don't know. maybe he's getting out money," James replied. I couldn't help but smirk. I pulled the now-assembled laser rifle out of the backpack.

"Now, I don't want to have to use this..."

"What's that? A foam dart gun?" Jessie laughed again.

"Something like that." I fired a blast into the pavement at their feet, taking care not to hit anything else.

"Yow! He's got a laser!" Meowth exclaimed.

"Forget this one, we've got three already! You can consider us blasted off!" Jessie said, and they bolted from the alleyway. Three already? Oh no.

I ran over to Rainbow, and began to untangle her from the net, taking the duct tape off of her mouth.

"They took Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike!" she exclaimed once the tape was off.

"How could they have managed that?"

"They took Fluttershy first... Twilight wouldn't attack them. I came back from my morning flight too late to stop them. I tried to take 'em out, but they shot a net at me!"

Well, this wasn't the best way to start the day. So we had the typical Team Rocket and Team Plasma going about. We rushed out of the alleyway to see their hot air balloon- black with the signature red 'R'- rise over some of the lower buildings, heading northward, away from the city. Rainbow took off after it. I aimed my laser rifle. I heard shouts as a police officer came my way, armed with a baton and yelling something. Definitely not a good way to start the day.

"Stop! Drop your weapon!" he commanded. I complied. He must have noticed the way I was holding it. The last thing I wanted to do was get thrown in jail while my friends were in danger.

"But my friends! Team Rocket took them!" I pointed to the balloon fast rising into the air.

"Team who?"

"Team Rocket! The criminals, from the Kanto region!" I explained.

"We're pretty far from Kanto, kid. Now, tell me, where did you get this?" He pointed his baton at the laser rifle, and picked it up.

"We don't have time for this! They're going to get away!"

"No they aren't," he said, and pointed in the direction of the balloon.

"What do you mean-" I turned around. The balloon was deflating rapidly through two large holes, still heading northward. There's Rainbow Dash, I thought.

"Please, don't take this from me. It's my only defense."

"I can't give this back to you, you must know that. Sorry kid, I won't bring you in, but I'm not letting you run around with a potentially dangerous object."

"Are you going to help me get my friends back?"

"Yeah, come on, let's go find your 'Team Rocket' fellows."

The two of us rushed through the city, entering the adjacent route and immediately recognizing the balloon wreckage. Rainbow was plucking nets from the fallen balloon's basket, which also housed the dazed members of the Team Rocket trio.

"Good one, Rainbow!" I complimented, and Rainbow brought the net containing Fluttershy, the last one, to the ground, and began walking over to me. The police officer inspected the three semi-conscious beings in the balloon basket, and handcuffed them.

"That was one fragile balloon, it's almost like it gets broken every time it goes anywhere," Rainbow remarked.

"Yeah, something like that. Let's get these three out of these nets."

Twilight had been defeated in battle by the two's Pokémon, and wasn't in very good shape, having fainted. Spike and Fluttershy, meanwhile, were uninjured. We untangled the three, and Fluttershy immediately took to inspecting the fallen unicorn's injuries.

"Did I just hear that Pokémon talk?" the police officer asked.

"Yeah, they aren't Pokémon, these four. You could say they're not from this world, aliens, if you will," I said.

"Whatever, kid, they look like Pokémon to me. Good luck, and thanks for helping me catch these criminals before they hurt anyone else. Here, I'll help your friend."

The officer pulled out a red spray bottle from a pouch on his belt, and sprayed it liberally over the purple unicorn. A super potion, no doubt. Her wounds seemed to disappear before our very eyes, and she was soon awake.

"Wow," Fluttershy said, in awe of the powerful medicine, "I haven't seen such effective medicine before."

"Well, this one's empty, but I've got another if you want it." He pulled another potion from the pouch, and placed it in Fluttershy's saddlebags.

"Umm, thank you, mister."

"No problem, take care, you hear?"

He called for back-up, which promptly arrived to take the three Rockets away, and left the scene, probably to report to the police station, or something. We continued northward, soon encountering Unova's desert. I began to wonder. Who else from this universe's various interpretations would appear on our journeys? I also cursed myself for not asking the policeman for information on the person we were looking for. I guessed we could find information on the other side of this desert.