Welcome to a new story that was an old story that is a thing I'm writing just to say that I wrote it, based on a world I made when I was a smol child.

The Child's POV

Even though it was at an awkward angle, sunlight still managed to flood my room each morning. For the first second of every morning, I could enjoy that. The white noise of the waterfall right outside the castle ensured a good night's sleep. The beds were comfy. I mean… life was pretty good on the surface. Most would call my complaints stupid. I was a princess of this great kingdom. I got just about the best of everything.

I had no idea what time it was, but not because I didn't have a clock. I did have one, right near my bed. The problem was… you couldn't necessarily count on that. When you had a family like mine, nothing could be assumed. The rules of time and space could be flipped on you and danger lurked around every corner.

There weren't any enemies, of course, it was just my sisters. There were nine of us in total. We all ate breakfast together. I'd have to get there fast so that I could actually grab some breakfast. I didn't have just my sisters to worry about either, also their Pokemon and our parents and their Pokemon and the others living here. We had lots of food, of course, but it got a little crazy, and I was at a distinct disadvantage.

I stripped my night clothing and quickly slipped into appropriate castle attire. Then I darted out the door of my small private chamber. I didn't get a big room yet, because I didn't have a Pokemon companion I needed room for. Just me took up way less room, so I was actually in what was more like a guest room. It was fine.

Fast as the wind, I made my way through staircases and long, winding hallways. As I ran down a flight of stairs, I saw two black shadowy portals open up. Platinum fell through one and into another. I found that a hallway was suddenly flooded as Sapphire surfed on her Kyogre, a small whale. So I had to go another way. The other room I went through, Pearl was in, and the gravity was alone. Yep, cool, that's what I wanted. Totally not just trying to get to breakfast.

But this was my life, everyone using these crazy magical powers with their Pokemon familiars… and then there was… me, hehe.

There was something wrong with me. Royal family members are usually born with the potential for really strong magic. It seemed I… was not. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do much in terms of magic. Not like the rest of them…

There were Gold, Silver, and Crystal with the three legendary dogs with power over electricity, fire, and purifying water respectively. Ruby and Sapphire had their titans, Ruby had Groudon, the titan of land, and Sapphire had Kyogre, the titan of the sea. Diamond and Pearl controlled time and space, and Platinum controlled some weird pocket dimension that sort of spilled over into our world sometimes… it was weird.

And then there was me. Nothing. Nobody. The Dud.

I sat down to breakfast, already in progress. I never really talked during breakfast, there was too much going on. Besides, I didn't want to hear what they had to say anyways. Probably just pointing out my faults, you know?

The food was yummy, there was bread and cheese and fruits. Our kingdom was isolated, but we had everything we needed to survive right here. The ground was mostly composed of white rock, too tough to grow anything in, so we used hydroponics.

I took and ate at fast as I could. I noted that the king was not at the table… but mom was. She was a beautiful lady with Cresselia as her familiar. So many voices… the Pokemon could talk to us, too, and they were not quiet. I couldn't wait until after this, when I had some free time. Soon, the food was gone. I got… a fair amount. I've gotten more before, and I for sure have gotten less. And Ruby and Sapphire were fighting over something stupid, and Diamond and Pearl were warping the laws of space-time to pull down butlers' pants. Crystal tried to get Ruby and Sapphire to stop fighting. Platinum and Silver were off in a corner, quietly eating, and Gold surveyed the chaos with a bit of a smirk playing on her lips.

And we went on like this, until mom banged her crescent staff on the floor. We all knew that meant we had to shut up and sit down now, or we would feel her wrath. We had all had the misfortune of getting on mom's bad side. It wasn't a good time. This was how she could control a household such as this, and a kingdom with it. As we all quieted down and focused on her, I couldn't help but notice my dad wasn't at the table again. He had important business to attend to, I was sure, but it would have been nice to see him. Or maybe it wouldn't have made much of a difference either way.

He was off upgrading the kingdom, combining his psychic powers with technology in order to revolutionize how we interact with our environments. We tested some of the technology here in the castle. Not gonna lie, it was pretty cool stuff. There were floating holographic panels that could do all sorts of things like show you a map or let you communicate telepathically with someone on the other side of the kingdom. The most impressive thing about the technology, though, was teleportation. The concept of teleportation itself wasn't that impressive. Just about anyone with a psychic Pokemon could tap into that ability, but the rest of us who didn't… Well, up to this point, we had no access to something like that. But now we could do it with technology. You could teleport from one console to another. For someone without magic like me, that was pretty incredible, huh? That was what Gold would say, anyways.

"Let us thank Arceus for the meal." Mom said. I bowed my head and prayed. Arceus shaped the world in a time and place where there was nothing. He made everything we had, and linked us to our Pokemon, so we prayed to him. Sometimes he actually came to visit. Arceus was a giant four legged, white Pokemon. He never did much of anything, just came to survey us and eat our food offerings.

Can I please bond with someone, anyone? Please, I will work so hard for you, Arceus. Just please grant me my magic.

"I expect you all to do your duties." She glared in the general direction of the younger siblings, including me. "You are dismissed." She was a good mother, really. One time when I was feeling miserable I ran to her, and even though she was in the middle of some work, she set it aside to comfort me. I really did have it good. I just had to keep working.

I got up, pushed my chair in, and quickly made my way back to my room. I wanted to get out of this room before-

"Hey Dud! You're on dishes! Crystal, you too."

That happened. Everyone had to do chores around here, and if you stayed in the dining hall for too long, you got stuck with the worst job of the bunch, doing the dishes. It wasn't so much that dishes were difficult to do, there were just so many of them, and it was so tedious and time consuming. With a dramatic sigh, I walked off in the direction of the kitchen.

"Whining isn't going to do you any good, little sister." Crystal said. "Let's go."

Crystal was one of the nicest sisters here. She was two years older than me with light blue hair, nearly clear eyes, and a peaceful smile. She pet her Suicune's purple mane absentmindedly. It stood there, a majestic dog that stood about shoulder height and had short blue and white fur and a large crystal shape protruding from its head. The legends didn't have to do the work. They did enough work by lending us their power, or at least, that was the justification for that.

I kept thinking like I was even a part of this. The legends did nothing for me. It was all them. It was all… everyone else in the castle, everyone in the entire kingdom. I had less prowess than the commoners. I shouldn't look down on them, or refer to them as commoners… but I mean, come on. I was supposed to be better than them! I was supposed to-

"You are supposed to be doing dishes, young lady." Archibald said. I grimaced. Archibald was an aging man paired with a Xatu, a large, green, psychic bird. He was an advisor to the king, and he could read thoughts. He… was a big stickler for the rules. The fact that I couldn't even have my thoughts to myself. Archibald looking into everything. "Don't think at me in that tone." He said, but it was unclear who he was talking to. I had already turned my back on him and crossed the threshold into the kitchen.

There were two large, industrial looking sinks up against metal walls and a checkerboard floor. It smelled of cleaning supplies and the leftover food. It didn't make the best of smell combinations, but it was something I was used to.

"You scrub, I'll rinse?" Crystal asked.

"That's how it usually goes, yeah? That's fine." I said in return. I picked up a scrubber and started to scrub. The plates we were using were made of precious materials, like gold and silver. Usually, dishes were made of pewter, but we had to have things fancy. Why… I wasn't exactly sure. The few times I tried to ask about it, I got a very vague answer about Arceus and the legends and such.

Anyways, the point was you had to be careful with how you cleaned these things. There was a special cleaning solution, and then I couldn't scrub too hard, but I had to scrub hard enough to get the food off. It was a balancing act, just like anything else in life. But that was kinda boring, huh? It would be cooler to just go all in.

Crystal had the easy job, the rinsing. The job was even easier for her, because her power was to manipulate and purify water. She could just use her magic to get it all done. She didn't even really have to move much. She was good at her magic, too. She purified the lake where we got our drinking water and farming water and…basically, our entire lives were dependent on this lake, and Crystal kept it pure. It seemed like that was a lot of weight on her shoulders. I mean, she was good at her job, but if she ever messed up… people could get sick.

I guessed, from that perspective, I was lucky to not have a legend. If I had a legend, I would have a responsibility like her. Now, during my day, while my sisters all had jobs to do in order to hold up the pillars of our kingdom. I got to do… whatever it was I wanted to do. Or maybe I was just telling myself that so I felt better about myself. Who knew?

"Training today?" Crystal asked, making casual conversation.

"Same as always." I said. Crystal shook her head.

"I don't understand why they still do that. It's been long enough. They should just give you a name already, let you forge your own identity. Just because you don't have a legend doesn't mean you have to sit around as a blank slate like a kid."

"Uhuh…" I said, scrubbing dish after dish and passing them on to Crystal.

"Are you mad at me?" Crystal asked, noting my terse tone.

"You've given up on me too, hm?" I asked in return, refusing to make eye contact. It cut deep, it really did. I knew she was trying to be nice. Crystal never tried to be mean to anyone, but she didn't understand. I could forge my identity without a legend. In fact, I already had, whether my family recognized it or not. There were things I was good at. There were things I was better at than anyone. If you needed someone to do something daring, that everyone else was afraid to go out and do…I was your girl. That wasn't the problem. The problem was I couldn't do magic, and that was all anyone cared about.

"I haven't… what I'm saying is, you don't need it."

"Mhm. Tell that to everyone else in this kingdom." I retorted.

There was silence between us for a few moments, just the noises of dishes and some flowing water. I had no intention of talking to her. I just wanted to get this done so I could go out and have a good time exploring. I'd been around 17 years, and there was always something new to find. A legend… if I had one, we could explore together.

"Maybe I will."

"What?" I asked.

"Tell the kingdom." Crystal said, smiling at me. I sighed. No. I tried saying things like that myself. I was not heard. I didn't say anything to her, though. It wasn't worth it.

We did the dishes in silence, and then I left.

I went back to my room. That was the other thing we had to do, take care of our own rooms. There were maids and servants to clean the rest of the castle, but we were responsible for our own rooms. It was supposed to teach respect for our surroundings. That was the downside to bolting out of bed in the morning, it made making the bed more difficult.

And fold, and tuck… everything was very methodical. Archibald told us exactly how we were to care for our rooms, and we were expected to abide by those rules. It was something I could do, but I didn't enjoy it.

I finished that up, changed into casual clothing, and slipped into the foyer to bring up a console. The console was a holographic screen, light blue in color. It was touch activated, even though there wasn't any physical screen to actually touch. It had a menu screen where you would select your service. I selected teleportation, and the console's screen switched to a map of the kingdom, with other consoles highlighted in green.

I selected the one on the island in the middle of the lake. It asked me to hold still for a moment, while it sent out a beam of light that went up and down my body. I didn't really understand the technology that went behind these consoles. I supposed I didn't really have to understand it in order to use it. How many people really knew how this thing worked? Besides dad, probably not many.

And then, suddenly and with no sort of warning, my perspective changed. I was still looking at a console, but my periphery was totally different. Instead of a foyer with grand door and a mirror and a little table with some flowers and candy, I was outside. The sun was shining, sand squeezed its way in between my toes. This was a good place, this was a happy place, this island.

I looked around… one could see the entire kingdom from here. It wasn't a very large place. You could see it from one end to the other from this island. It was basically a large oblong white rock in the middle of the ocean that had had a crater drilled into it by a giant meteor from the sky. Years of rain and erosion did part of the job of shaping our land, hard work and sculpting tools of our ancestors did the other. And that really exemplified what our society was all about, didn't it? Man and nature, working together to make something great. Most people lived in caves carved out of the sun-bleached rock. They were nice caves, not like a savage or something, it had furniture and stuff, but still, they were in caves. So was the castle, technically. It was carved out of stone, too.

I saw Crystal in the distance, riding Suicune, purifying the lake water. I glanced at the sun dial made of marble to my right. It had the crest of the kingdom on it. It was a minimalist outline of Arceus with lines for a waterfall in the back crashing down at Arceus's feet and swirling off to the side. I had a good amount of time until training. Usually, during this time, a princess would go out and do their duty. I didn't have one yet, so I liked to help out citizens. They appreciated me, and didn't really care much about my lack of magic.

At least, they were respectful enough not to say it to my face.

I ran to the edge of the island and jumped into the lake. So what if I gave Crystal a little extra work today? I wanted to go for a swim. My body went into the water… it was cool, and clean, and beautiful. Crystal and Suicune really were amazing. They could mater something as simple as water so cleansing, something that could bring me peace. This was the kind of power I was supposed to have.

I breached the surface of the water and gasped for air. My hair stuck to my body, and the breeze gave me a slight chill. I had emerged on the south wall of the kingdom, and I did mean wall. There was a large cliff separating me and the kids. I was pretty sure there was a console close to them, but honestly, I felt like climbing.

I jumped up and clung to the cliff wall. I loved to climb, to jump, to swim, to explore. I took the kids exploring. It was something they thought was fun and… encouraged them. These were kids who hadn't bonded to their Pokemon either. They didn't have names either. I wanted to make sure they didn't feel left out. I was there for them.

I swung from rock to rock, working my muscles. I got close to the top, and with one mighty heave, pulled myself up and over onto the ledge. I could at least count on my own body.

"Hey, kids!" I called out, and waited a moment. A minute later, about a dozen little white haired children came out of their homes. These were the late bloomers. I was glad, if nothing else, I was able to comfort these children. They felt the same way I did, not good enough. They tried just as hard as I did to muster up the magical energy to bond with a Pokemon and begin their lives. The royal family had to gather up much more than the citizens, though. If I wasn't in the royal family… I probably would have gotten my Pokemon by now. I could muster up a little, after a lot of hard work, it just wasn't enough.

There were a chorus of greetings from the children. I smiled at them.

"Ready for some adventure, I think I found a way to the outside world." I said, a mischievous smile curling my lips. This world was amazing, but it was a little restricted. There were so many things to find and explore, but there was even more beyond. Like I said, we were in the middle of an ocean, but I knew from books and stories that the world was not the ocean. There were other lands in this world, with other peoples. We didn't try to visit them or trade with them or even associate with them. I always had to wonder why?

"But wait, isn't that dangerous?" One of the kids, a little boy, said.

"Yes." I grinned. "But I know you guys can handle it. Nobody has to go that doesn't want to. Tap out now. There's no shame." I looked around at the kids, their gray eyes staring back at mine. Not a single one said no. Excellent. "Follow me." I gestured for them to follow, then walked off in the direction of the Cascades.

"Hey, miss. I've been working real hard on trying to get some magic, wanna see?" his little eyes were sparkling.

"Yeah, sure." I replied.

He closed his eyes as he walked and… there was a very small, nearly imperceptible mist. He had his eyes closed very tightly… and suddenly he was on the ground. Kid tripped on a rock.

"Whoa, are you ok?" I asked, reaching out toward him. Suddenly, a Pidgey landed on his head, and his hair… turned a chestnut brown, his skin darkened a bit. It was like someone turned up the saturation on this kid, and someone did. The Pidgey did it. This was his familiar. His familiar had finally found him. I grinned I was so… proud of him.

"Yeah, I'm alright, just…" He got up and rubbed his hair, then he looked at his hand, and the Pidgey that landed on it. He gasped and looked down at it. "Are… you…?" The Pidgey hopped up his arm and nuzzled him. His eyes watered and he started crying uncontrollably. I gave him a hug and stroked his hair. I would be lying if said I wasn't a little jealous, even if it was a Pidgey.

"You did it." I said, he nodded and kept crying. "You should run along home and show your folks, ok?" he nodded, held his Pidgey close, and went off. Everyone else waved after him and congratulated him. Maybe he would keep having adventures with us, and maybe he wouldn't. This was the first time something like this had happened. Maybe if he could do this, there was hope for all of us.

"See, we can do it too. Just keep practicing, and keep the spirit of adventure. Now, you guys still good to go?"

I got a chorus of affirmatives. I marched onwards. When we got to the Cascades, I looked back at the kids.

"Last chance…" I said. None of the kids backed down. Good kids. "Ok, you're going to want to make a dash through this waterfall, here. If you aren't fast, you won't get through. Ready?"

"YEAH!"

"LET'S GO!" I yelled, and we ran into the waterfall, bound for adventure. When I got through the waterfall, I saw a cavern, and it went way into the dark. I counted the kids, they were all there. Good.

Adventure ho! Have an awesome day, guys!