After seeing the awe-inspiring Storm Tank, with a Swampert family resolutely fixing their sandcastle after a huge wave took out a wall, we get ready to move out. The pokemon are amazing here, but I kinda want to get a little more actually done today. As well, I want to check out the Aquarium’s owner guy, and ask about that angler fish-anemone thing.

I look around for an old guy that looks like he’s missing a screw, as that’s the description I got earlier. After some investigating, I wind up asking another attendant, who directs me to the clearly-labeled office. Of course.

Knocking on the door, I wait for a moment. A few shuffling noises later, and an older man with silvery-gray hair greets me. His eyes are the almost-shut of someone with bad eyesight and used to squinting a lot.

“Greetings, trainers! What brings you to my office?” His voice reminds me of what I’d imagine Santa Claus to sound like. Friendly, warm, and generally nice. Also, bass enough to feel as he speaks, but that’s just an impressive baritone voice at work.

“Well, I was wondering about a certain Pokemon you have on display. I can name practically all of them except one. I’m new to Otaria and I figured you’d know more than me about the local ones...”

“Well, go ahead and describe it. Oh, and would you all like a candy? I have toffees and caramel chews, if you’re interested.” He gestures to a large jar on the desk.

I will never in my life ever turn down caramel, so I take one and begin explaining the weird, tentacally, spotted thing I saw.

“Ah! You saw our resident Marilurk! Ah, she’s such a rare sight in the Dark Depths exhibit. They only show up in extremely deep trenches in the ocean, and there’s a few near Otaria, and so few elsewhere. Not even the Hoenn region boasts as many miles under the ocean as we do!”

Weird, isn’t the Hoenn region, like, 80% water? I recall needing to surf more than walk in the games. Well, I guess just having more available doesn’t mean you know more about what’s in it.

“So... as you may have already been informed, I give away prizes to anyone who can bring in a pokemon that piques my interest. Would any of you care to show off one of your pokemon?”

I figure since he’s running an aquarium, Carvanha would be a decent bet. I toss it- her out into a medium, seemingly-empty, open-topped tank.

“Ah, a young Carvanha, eh? Impressive catch, but not too interesting, I’m afraid. Still, very beautiful specimen you have there.” Carvanha snaps her teeth at him.

Okay, yes, Rarity was right I suppose. Girl it is then. Oh well, not like gender matters, as long as she can accomplish a task when it’s needed of her, gender doesn’t matter.

“Well, how about either of you girls? One pokemon per day, per person, please.” Twilight thinks for a moment, then sends out Spheal, evidently having the same idea to use an oceanic pokemon as I did. “Hmm? Quite interesting! Not what I’m looking for, but this one has much potential. I’m sure he’s a good companion, yes?”

Twilight nods, and returns her pokemon to its ball.

Rarity looks over her pokeballs, and finally decides on one. She flicks her wrist gracefully and sends out Feebas.

“Ah-ha! Now that is what I mean by interesting! So much potential... and yet, appearing so plain, and ordinary. Here you go, my dear, a gift.” He pulls out from his desk... a ticket? “It’s a Permanent Pass. You can upgrade it if need be for use on ferries and the like, but for now it’s just got free entrance to the Aquarium. With, of course, up to three guests.”

Really? Feebas? I mean, he has a point, but... to quote Rarity. ‘It’s so uuuuuuuuuuuglyyyyy!’

Oh well, free aquarium pass. “And uh, what ferries would this pass let us on? How do we ‘upgrade’ it?”

“Well, mostly folks who get those passes just put money on ‘em, like gift cards. That one, however, can get you to the Verdant Island research station. You’d have to take the ferry from here, but it’s currently down thanks to the recent Zubzilla attack.”

“Ah.” I can’t really think of much to say, recalling how much damage those things can cause. And if the wall around this place is any indication, they were not crazed rumormongers’ work.

“Heh, well, kids, I must ask you to go. My lunch break is about to end, and I’ll need to do paperwork, unfortunately.”

“You... you do that. We have places to be anyways. Thanks for the ticket though.”

“You’re welcome. Feel free to come back anytime, especially once that Feebas of your evolves.” He waves us goodbye as we leave, smiling gently the whole while.

We take our leave, stopping briefly at a few exhibits we hadn’t checked out on our way in. Once we finally made it back to the entrance, it was time to prepare for that forest. Twilight and I discussing strategies for how to effectively catch but not outright destroy the local species of Grass types available or get ourselves flattened.

Two days pass, and we’re getting ready to enter the forest north of Autumnwash Town, following the path away from the Primal Reserve.

That said, now that I’m standing in front of the entrance to the forest, which has a large building with armed guards on top, I’m starting to wonder. Only one of the guards is facing this side, too, which only makes me more worried.

Once we go inside, the receptionist-person at the information desk informs me that it’ll be another day or so before the next caravan heads through the forest; she does say that we’re probably fine going through if we’re as careful as we can be. And keep at least one pokemon out and one person awake at all times.

I decide on Geodude being our accompaniment. He’s a pretty serious guy, so he’d probably do the least amount of dicking around among our teams. And he’s a pretty solid fighter, so we have that on our side as well.

Finally working up our courage, we head into the forest. Upon leaving the building, one of the guards yells for us to ‘be careful out there!’. Moments later, we’re in the woods, following a fairly spacious path, dotted here and there with tall grass and wheel ruts from cars.

We keep walking, not really finding that many Grass types, surprisingly. I see an Oddish in the shade of a tree, but the second it sees me it seems to just sink into the ground, camouflaging itself into the tall grass around it. All it takes is one blink and I can no longer tell which blades of grass belong to it, or the ground.

Still, the sound of bird-pokemon can be heard in the upper canopy, sometimes. Occasionally, I hear the raucous cawing of Murkrow, which can also sometimes be seen as glittering eyes under dark hat-shapes.

I briefly recall the omen of Murkrow at sundown, and decide to pick up the pace a bit. It may be only noon right now, but I don’t want to risk the universe not caring as is quite frequent. We find ourselves in front of a fork in the road after that, with the option to turn sharply to the right, which I think is north, or keep heading onwards, though the path is turning every now and then, so I’m not sure which cardinal direction we're actually going. Man, this ‘forest navigation’ stuff is a heck of a lot harder without objective directions to check, and a top-down view of your every surrounding like in the games.

We pick left for no real reason, and after a bit of walking down the narrower path, I hear some weird, really odd noises. “Is it just me, or do you guys hear that too?”

“Yeah, but what is it?” Twilight asks. “I’ve never heard anything like it. Should we turn back?”

I shake my head. “Come on, it’s probably just another pokemon. We’ll be fine, let’s just find some good Grass types and get out of here. In and out, no problem.”

We continue for a little while longer, and the noises get louder. After at least a mile, the sounds resolve themselves as some kind of chanting, and I’m reminded of Misdreavus. ‘Come on man, pull it together. Sometimes their chanting brings good fortune, remember? Maybe they’re bidding us safe passage or something. Besides, we have plenty of pokemon that can hurt Ghost types. We’re fine. We’re fine- Oh god I think I’m lost...’

We turn a bend in the path, and see a wide, circular clearing in the forest. It’s on one side of the path, and a large group of child-sized humanoids are in a circle around a large bonfire, dancing and chanting, while a pair of teen-sized ones are standing in a triangle, and seem to be guiding the chant. All of them look kinda like witches, though the small ones look more cutesy, and the three bigger-looking ones look more like they’re in witch costumes you’d find in the less child-oriented parts of a costume shop.

Ooooookay, even Geodude’s getting some bad vibes from this. Going home n-

“Morgüs.” a rich, feminine voice says from behind me, and I barely stifle a yelp of fright. Turning on the spot, I see a feminine pokemon, about my height, looking like she’s in a dress of 17th-century make. The black, orange, and purple colors of the pokemon don’t put me at ease in the slightest as she reaches up towards my face with her fingers alight, and eldritch green fire burning at their tips.

All of my nope! What the hell is she going to do? Does she like my face? Oh god I hope she doesn’t try to peel it off!

Before I can get away, though, her fingers make contact with my temples, her hand wide enough to touch my right with her thumb, and my left with her pointer finger. A flash of pale-green fire, and I stumble, skittering backwards through the tall grass as the chanting of the little pokemon reach a crescendo.

This how I die. This is how I fucking die. Flaming mindrape by some sort of twisted Halloween Town tourist!

Thankfully, though, I can move my legs again, and I start running, Twilight and Rarity running after me, and I can hear someone screaming shrilly.

It’s not until we stop for a break, on the other fork of the road, that I realize it was me by my sore throat.

What the heck was that? What were those things? What did they want?

Woah, I must’ve run pretty fast, I’m feeling kinda dizzy. I sit down on the path, but the feeling doesn’t go away immediately. I walk out from under the slight shade of a tr- I’m not under a tree. Looking up, I see that the daylight is starting to wane. Ohhhhh crap. This is not good. This is... much worse than it was two seconds ago.

My eyes fall on a house. A creepy house. Like, what you’d expect from a horror movie. The kind that screams ‘I am haunted! Do not enter if you are a young adult, black, or female!’ It even has a rusty, pointy-topped fence around it!

And the creepy witch kids are back. House, witches? House? Witches? House. I grab the girls and yank them with me as I rush through the front door of the large, clearly-dooming building.

We stand in the foyer for a moment. Then, the doors slam themselves shut, and the house cackles.

Shit, should’ve chosen the witches.