Chapter 9: Need a Light?

Blahsadfeguie descended his nigh-forgotten rope into the caverns that had previously been dangerously close to corruption. This was the first time he had been this far without someone to watch his back, and the lack of the corruption's eaters only compounded the feeling of desolation. But perhaps this was a good thing, Blah began to ponder. It was only a matter of time before the ponies, or some other civilization, discovered these mineral-rich plains and stripped them clean. He figured he should enjoy the feeling while it lasted.

He'd at least have a much easier time getting away with making a suit of armor out of solid silver or gold without someone watching over him.

Meeting with the half-intact wall of sand, Blah withdrew his Nitemare Pickaxe and carved his way through it with ease. Just as he suspected, the cavern continued on beyond it. He made sure to collect a bit of the sand before he continued.

The cavern leveled out a ways in, the walls still mainly composed of softer dirt. He made sure to keep the route well-lit with torches, placing each one just within the light radius of the last. As he had limited pack space and a full set of iron armor already, he decided to skip any copper and iron he found, which helped him traverse the long and winding caves quickly. Occasionally, a red or yellow slime would jump out from a dark corner and ambush the fresh meat, but they were easily dispatched with a few slams of his silver warhammer. He decided to stockpile the gel as he went in the interest of safety.

Unfortunately, there weren't nearly enough veins of silver or gold this close to the surface. He mined out what little he found and pressed onward, hoping to find a dip in the cave structure soon.

Blah eventually came to a dead end with a small opening in the rough stone wall. This opening would have gone unnoticed, if not for the faint amount of blue light poking out of it. Curiously, he enlarged the hole with his pickaxe until it was big enough for him to slip through.

As he did, he was met with an incredible sight. Below him was a sprawling cavern, the walls and shape of which were painted with the dim light of a matted blue covering. Even more impressive were the gigantic blue mushrooms growing from the surface, each one as tall as a tree. The air was sparsely filled with tiny luminescent spores, which floated wistfully around like fireflies.

Blah took on the sights in awe. He recognized this as a rare, yet beautiful occurrence in the Terrarian underground: a glowing mushroom biome. It was no surprise that, while the horrifying atmosphere of the game's more frightening scenes were amplified tenfold in person, so too were the majestic ones even more wondrous. He simply had to make his way down and experience the subterranean forest up close.

He picked a muddy slope near his ledge and cautiously slid down it, maintaining a slowing friction with the soles of his feet. He gazed at the caps of the mushrooms, which formed a distinct canopy above him. Before today, he had not seen a mushroom bigger than his fist, and here he stood in the midst of towering ten-foot fungi. Blah suddenly felt like he had shrunk down to the size of a mouse.

As he was about to touch the trunk of one of the fungal trees, he heard a faint rustling noise nearby. He glanced downward and locked eyes with a small, greenish creature, barely reaching above his ankles in height. It was round and spotted, looking a bit like a mushroom itself. It had a clear face, complete with two eyes and a mouth, along with a straight crevice resembling a unibrow. The creature stood still, watching Blah warily.

This creature seemed familiar to Blah, but not quite in the same way that the glowing mushrooms were. He couldn't quite place where he had seen it before. "Well, hello there," he greeted in an attempt to sound harmless. The creature silently quivered for a split second and stopped, as if unsure whether to wait or flee.

It was then that Blah noticed many more pairs of eyes, glaring at him from behind mushrooms and rocks. 'I'm probably the first human they've ever seen,' Blah determined, starting to feel nervous. 'It's up to me to make a good impression... too bad I'm terrible with animals.'

Blah slowly kneeled down to the living mushroom's level. As he had nothing to physically offer, he decided to reach out and gently pet it instead. The creature didn't seem to like the idea of Blah's hand coming closer, however. With a startled cry, it scuttled away and joined its brethren in hiding.

"Aw, come on now," Blah pleaded, unsure what else to try. "I don't want to hurt you..."

There was what sounded like apprehensive muttering among the creatures. Blah stood up, but it was a bit quicker than he intended, and the natives were put off by the suddenness. One of them shouted. The cry was a single syllable that sounded remarkably like "Shroom!"

"Yeah, I know you're mushrooms," Blah replied, attempting to keep up a calming conversation. "I like mushrooms. Mushrooms are cool."

"Shroomish!" continued one of the mushrooms.

"Well yeah, you're not quite mushrooms, but..." Blah trailed off. 'Shroomish,' Blah repeated in his head. 'That's exactly what they are. Shroomish are a kind of Pokemon!' A smirk played across his face as he realized that he had encountered another of his past interests. In addition to Terraria and Equestria, this world contained Pokemon as well! He had been a devoted fan to the popular monster RPG series since the Red and Blue versions came out on the Gameboy, and he could probably name just about every Pokemon there was, or at least from the first four and a half generations.

"So a group of Shroomish have made a mushroom biome their home..." muttered Blah. "If I could somehow capture one of these guys, I'd be much better off in this universe. Their evolved form is actually one of my favorite Pokemon. What's it called again...?"

A voice behind him kindly jogged his memory. "Breloom."

"Oh yeah, thanks!" Blah turned to meet the helpful individual, only to wind up with a heavy punch to the face. Reeling, he glanced up at the attacker. It was roughly four feet tall, and had a green and yellow body with a shape that reminded him of a kangaroo. Its head was topped with a wide mushroom brim, and its short arms were poised to strike again. 'Of course,' thought Blah, removing his hand from his face to check it for blood. It was clean, thankfully. 'I should've known that was an actual Breloom.'

"Bre, breloom," the Breloom angrily declared, while another one slipped in between Blah and the rest of the Shroomish. It was obvious that they wanted him to leave. Blah figured that the fungal Pokemon could do a lot more damage to him if they wanted to.

"Fine, I know when I'm not wanted here," Blah surrendered, turning to walk away from the mushroom forest. However, a glint of pink caught his eye, causing him to stop. He slowly turned his head to see a large, heart-shaped object in the distance, on the other side of the biome.

As a player of Terraria, he had been conditioned to get excited at the sight of anything heart-shaped, and reasonably so. This was a Life Crystal, which increased the maximum health of whoever used it. Whatever that translated to in quasi-real-life terms, he wasn't sure, but he knew that it could only benefit him greatly in the end.

The two Breloom tensed up, noting that Blah had stopped. "Loom..." growled one.

The human carefully weighed his options. He could make a break for that Life Crystal and risk getting pummeled by the high-level Pokemon, or leave in the other direction and miss out on some increased survivability.

'Well, reward usually isn't without risk,' Blah decided as he did an about-face and sprinted madly for the crystal, his hammer out for purely defensive purposes.

The outraged Breloom were quick to react, and one charged after him with another blinding Mach Punch attack. It struck him on his armored back, but the force alone was enough to make him stumble and trip. Though slightly dazed, Blah managed to roll over onto his back in time to parry the other's assault, knocking its arm away with his hammer. The reach of the seemingly short-armed Pokemon was astounding. It almost looked to him like their arms stretched out with each punch.

Blah rolled again out of the way of the first one's second attack and onto his stomach, where he lifted himself back to his feet with tenacity that surprised even himself. Perhaps it was the thought of getting his first Life Crystal, a much sought-after feat for a beginning permadeath run, that gave him the drive to move swiftly. His top priority was to reach the crystal. His second was to defend himself. That was it.

And so he pounded ahead, kicking up smaller mushrooms and clumps of mud, determined to reach his goal. The Life Crystal lay in front of him, gleaming from the surrounding blue light. His speed was just enough to match the pace of the Breloom. He couldn't keep it up for long, but he didn't need long. Holding his hammer high, he leaped off of the ground and let his momentum guide his hammer towards his target.

CRASH! The brittle outer layer of the crystal gave way to the force of the hammer, leaving behind a much more solid, smaller crystal. The impact wrenched the hammer out of his hands, and he slid forward into the soil. His primary goal accomplished, his fatigue caught up to him, and he struggled to pick himself up. When he finally did, he found both of the Breloom staring him down. He couldn't really tell, but he knew that if anything, that little stunt only made them angrier.

He took their moment of pause to pick up his hammer, and quickly glance around him for his escape route. There was a gap in the floor ahead, but on the other side was a stretch of mud untouched by the glowing mushrooms. If he could build up as much speed as he did earlier, he thought he might have a shot at jumping it.

But first, he had to retrieve the crystal. The Breloom, knowing this, stood near it, waiting for Blah to make a move.

After taking a deep, much-needed breath, he began his charge, hammer poised, straight for the one on the left. His target drew back its arm, ready for a counter. Blah immediately ducked to the right and swung at the other Breloom's torso, knocking it back a few feet. However, he had once again misjudged the range of the Pokemon, and the other one launched its attack anyway, striking his helmet with open palm, narrowly missing the exposed part of his forehead. And, once again, the sheer force was enough to penetrate the armor, giving Blah a minor headache.

Desperately wanting to avoid a follow-up, he swung wildly to the left and smacked the other Breloom in the head. This bought him enough time to wait for his vision to clear, after which he snagged the crystal.

No sooner had he done that than the Breloom on the right had recovered, sending a well-timed jumping uppercut to his jaw. Blah had no hope of dodging that one, and was helplessly tossed into the air. Despite the throbbing pain in his head, he kept a firm grip on the crystal and his hammer. The mud only slightly broke his fall.

By the time he got up, one of the Breloom had moved in between him and the gap, and the other was approaching fast. Blah turned and ran straight for the gap. If he could take care of this one final obstacle without losing too much speed, he would be home free. The path was narrow, however, and ducking around the Breloom would kill his momentum. The Pokemon braced itself for whatever impact Blah might attempt.

Thinking quickly, he wound his left arm back and flung the Life Crystal as he ran. The Breloom was momentarily distracted as the object soared over its head, giving Blah just enough of an opening to smash the hammer into its side with both hands. With the Breloom off to the side, Blah trained his focus on the jump ahead. He kicked off of the ground at the last minute. His speed cleared him the distance easily, but his footing was shaky when he landed on the other side. No longer threatened, he carefully let himself fall.

The Breloom shouted at him from the other side while he panted heavily into the dirt. They decided it wasn't worth trying to catch him at that point and walked away.

Blah sat up. He began a wheezing laugh, not at the Pokemon, but more towards himself for somehow making it out of that mess. And then, all at once, the pain-killing adrenaline wore off, and his headache flared like a raging inferno.

He desperately reached for one of Applejack's cider potions, removing the cap and chugging it as if it were the first drink he'd had in days. His headache gradually eased, allowing him to register the taste and feel of the lukewarm cider flowing down his esophagus. It was as smooth as ordinary cider, and had a similarly pleasing taste. The other ingredients detracted from it slightly, but not enough to make him sick. It was a very calming drink, even without considering the injuries it treated.

'If only it cured exhaustion,' Blah lamented as he struggled to his feet, leaning against the cavern wall. He gazed at the mushroom biome one last time. None of the Pokemon remained within sight.

He reached down and picked up his prize: the Life Crystal that he had thrown across before himself. A valuable treasure, but was it worth antagonizing an entire habitat? He could practically hear Hailstorm's voice already. "What was that about?!" he barked. "Those peaceful creatures only wanted to defend themselves, and you smacked them around and stole their crystal just to get a little more health?"

'Well, they weren't using it,' Blah defended himself against his cleverly-disguised conscience. 'And there's a little thing called "survival of the fittest".'

The imaginary pegasus shook his head. "This is why you're alone down here, Blah. You put yourself first, and everyone else second, only helping out when you feel like you have something to gain from it."

Blah had nothing to say to that. He couldn't even look at the Life Crystal anymore. Instead, he solemnly stuffed it in his backpack and continued deeper into the caverns.

He mined out all the gold and silver he could as per usual, but he found it hard to get excited about it. He was running on autopilot. The fact that that stunt left him hopelessly lost while he slowly ran out of light sources did not help his guilt in the slightest.

Finally, he found himself left with a single torch and no way to mark his traveled path. With his torch in one hand and his pickaxe in the other, he pressed onward in the hopes that he would encounter the surface eventually. At one point, he stopped running into slimes and Terrarian monsters altogether. The cave was instead populated with Pokemon such as Zubat and Geodude. Some attacked him, but none of them were a match for his hammer.

His victories were shallow and unrewarding. He came to the realization that his latest act of selfishness not only got him lost, but now he wasn't likely to make it to that party, either. He wouldn't even get a chance to make up for what he did to Hailstorm.

He was considering giving up hope entirely when he noticed a faint, yellowish light flickering from around a corner. Blah knew that it would be far too dark by now for there to be any sunlight remaining. The flickering hinted that it wasn't natural, either. He edged closer to it, and soon enough, he heard an anguished cry echoing from a distant chamber.

Blah's hope was restored. Even if this entity was lost just like he was, at least he wouldn't be alone. Without a moment of hesitation, he rounded the corner and ran for the light. The cry became clearer. He rounded another corner. The light became brighter. Up ahead, he saw a pit in the ground from which the light source emanated. He skidded to a halt, peering over the edge.

Sitting at the bottom of the pit, exhausted and desperate, was a bright yellow, bipedal Pokemon with black stripes on its neck, tail, and two short, rounded horns. On the end of its tail was a red bulb which emitted the light. Blah recognized this Pokemon as easily as any other, now that he was in the mindset for it. This was Ampharos, a fully-evolved electric-type. A Pokemon such as this would almost never be found deep in a cave.

"Hey, Ampharos!" Blah called. Hearing a human's voice, the Ampharos perked up. "Need any help getting out of there?"

"Amph!" cried the Pokemon gratefully. "Pharos!"

Blah took that as a "yes". "Okay, give me two seconds!" Blah stepped back, brandishing his pickaxe. With a deep breath, he began chipping away at the stone underneath him, quickly carving out a primitive staircase. He realized partway through that he could have just thrown down a rope, but at least this way he could hang on to the excess stone for house-building. That, and it was cooler.

"Aaaaamph," the Ampharos voiced, certainly impressed at Blah's digging skills.

As it carefully climbed the staircase, Blah noticed several nasty-looking bruises on its body. 'Poor thing must have taken a painful fall,' guessed Blah. He reached for one of his Sparkling Red Ciders. "Here," he offered, "you should drink this. It'll make you feel better."

The Ampharos eyed the drink cautiously, then took it and tried a sip. "Pha!" it acclaimed, delighted by the taste, and finished the whole thing in seconds. In seconds more, the Pokemon's wounds faded all at once. "Pharos! Ampharos!" it said happily, practically jumping for joy.

Blah smiled. He could not deny that this was an adorable sight. "Awesome! That should give you the strength to make it out of this cave."

"Amph," the Ampharos nodded. It stepped back a few paces towards a particular corridor, waving at Blah. "Ampharos!"

Blah started to raise his hand to wave back, but caught himself when he realized he still had a predicament of his own. "Oh, wait a minute," he called, stopping the Pokemon. "If you know the way out, do you mind if I come with you? I'm actually kind of lost, heheh..."

Ampharos nodded again without a moment of hesitation and beckoned for the human to follow. "Pharos!"

"Alright, thanks!" Blah double checked his bag and equipment and enthusiastically caught up to the Electric-type.

As they walked, not many wild Pokemon appeared to stand in their way. Perhaps they were repelled by the strong light of the Ampharos, or they just saw it as too powerful to mess with. Either reason was valid in Blah's mind. He only wished that his escort could answer any of the questions he desperately wanted to ask, but it couldn't be helped.

Before long, Blah noticed another light source shining dimly from ahead. Squinting at the ceiling, he saw there was a sizable hole through which the half-moon was clearly visible. Blah guessed that the Ampharos may have fallen down here, and got stuck looking for another exit.

Blah stared at the moon. The sun had already fallen, and he had no real way of knowing how late into the night it was. It could be the witching hour, or an hour before sunrise for all he knew. If he couldn't get a decent night's sleep before the party, he wasn't sure if any excuse he had would be good enough...

"Ampha?" The Ampharos waved its arm in front of Blah's blank face, snapping him out of his trance.

"Sorry," he apologized, gripping his pickaxe, "I was just thinking about... personal stuff." He stretched his arms for a moment before getting to work on the dirt walls of the cave, excavating a sizable staircase to the surface while Ampharos kept the area well-lit for him. When he breached the surface, he picked a rock to sit on and catch his breath as Ampharos climbed up after him. "There," panted Blah. "Now nobody's getting stuck down here again."

He took a second to look around while Ampharos sat down on another nearby rock. Every section of untamed wilderness looked the same to him. As such, he couldn't determine how far he was from Blahtown, or what direction to go in. He also doubted the Ampharos knew where it was either.

"So..." he began nervously. "I don't suppose you could point me to the nearest town, as well...?"

"Ampharos," replied the Electric-type, standing up. It motioned for Blah and began heading towards the thinner portion of the treeline. Blah jumped to his feet and followed closely.

With Ampharos navigating for them both, Blah began to think about where this Pokemon might have come from. The likelihood that it was a wild Pokemon was very slim, as most Pokemon in the wild don't evolve on their own. "Do you have a trainer?" asked Blah in an attempt to break the silence.

Ampharos looked back at him and nodded. "Yes, I do," it said.

"I figured as much," replied the human. Having a wild Ampharos that might be willing to join him sounded too good to be true. Especially one that could talk.

'Wait a minute, what?!' It took him a moment to realize that the Pokemon had spoken in what appeared to be plain English just then, in a voice that sounded like that of an energetic young lady. "D-did you just... talk?"

"Of course, I've been talking," laughed the Ampharos. "Why, can you understand me?"

"I... I can now, apparently." It was a strange feeling, now that he was conscious of it. He registered the sounds of the Pokespeak as usual, only it was as though there were a translator in his head making him hear something he could understand.

"Strange," remarked Ampharos, turning back to the front. "Not even my trainer can understand me. I don't think he tries half the time, anyway." The two of them crossed over into a more marshy setting. The ground was muddy in places, and there was a light drizzle.

"Do you like your trainer?" tried Blah.

"Well..." She looked up to the moon in thought. "He's a bit of an egomaniac, and also kind of oblivious, but he's great at keeping us all together and focused on the task at hand. When you overlook his glaring flaws, he's a good friend."

"So you consider him a good friend, despite his shortcomings..." repeated Blah, mostly to himself.

"Yeah. No one's perfect, but no one's irredeemable either. Once you get to know them, you can find the good in anybody, as long as they allow that good to be found."

The Pokemon's words gave Blah a completely new outlook. If he brushed someone the wrong way, no matter what happens, there would always be a chance for him to patch things up. Some things were out of his control, but as long as he made an effort to change the things that weren't, he could be forgiven. Twilight was willing to give him a chance, so why not Hailstorm?

"And we're here," announced Ampharos as a series of houses came into view. Blah glanced at a nearby sign illuminated by her light, which read: "Welcome to Pastoria City - Home of the Great Marsh".

"Pastoria..." he read aloud. Town names in the Pokemon world weren't easy for him to remember, but he was fairly sure that this was in the region known as Sinnoh. "How far did I travel underground...?"

When he looked back, he noticed Ampharos had already gone ahead towards a large building with a red roof. Blah hastily caught up, entering the building just behind her. The interior was clean and well-lit, with a few couches and tables on the sides. Discolored tiles on the floor made up a pattern of two connected semi-circles, a smaller sphere in the middle. On the far end of the room was a red counter, behind which stood a pink-haired woman in a nurse uniform.

Blah easily identified this building as a Pokemon Center, a place where trainers could rest their Pokemon. Just about every town had at least one of them, as well as their own Nurse Joy. He had been inside these countless times in the games, but nothing could compare to the relaxing feeling of physically being there.

The nurse greeted the human and Pokemon with a cheerful curtsy. "Welcome to the Pokemon Center, where we rest your tired Pokemon!"

"Oh, I'm fine," the Ampharos responded. "Have you seen a boy with sunglasses and purple-striped hair lately?" Oddly, she didn't seem as worried about finding him as Blah was, as if this sort of thing happened a lot.

There was a moment of silence. A hint of confusion could be seen on Nurse Joy's otherwise perpetually smiling face. She looked at Blah for guidance. "Pardon me, but what is your Ampharos saying?"

"What she's saying is," Blah answered, unsurprised that only he could translate, "she's fine, but we're looking for her trainer. Apparently he's a boy with sunglasses and purple-striped hair. Have you seen anybody like that around here?" Now that he thought about it, that description sounded somewhat familiar.

"Hmm..." She gazed off to the side. "I'm sorry, I don't think I've seen anyone like that. You're welcome to stay here overnight, in case he shows up. I'm sure he's looking for you right now as well."

"I can't exactly afford to stay here overnight..." Blah lamented, recalling the date that had been branded into his guilty conscience. "I need to get back to Ponyville. You know how to get there from here?"

"I haven't heard of a place called Ponyville," Joy responded, about as lost as Blah. "There's a map of Sinnoh on the wall, though, in case it might help."

"Thanks," Blah said as he approached the poster depicting the Sinnoh region. He had entered the town from the southwest, which meant he was facing north when he exited the cave. Not that knowing that helped much, considering the cave had so many twists and turns it was impossible to retrace his own steps. That and there was nothing but water to the south.

Before he could approach the puzzle from any other angle, he heard the door open behind him, accompanied by a young male voice. "What, you're saying she fell down a hole in the ground, and I just walked away?"

"Yep. Wouldn't be the first time." This was another Pokemon, whose voice was course and somewhat demanding, at least in Blah's ears.

"What did you call me?" the human retorted, obviously unable to understand the Pokemon.

"I didn't call you anything, idiot." The Pokemon sounded as if all of his patience wore away long ago.

The banter between the two was more than enough to make Blah lose his focus. He turned around to confront them, and was shocked upon realizing who it was - a skinny trainer in his late teens, his smooth orange hair streaked with purple. His dark sunglasses, a bit large for his face, completely concealed his eyes. The denim vest over his black T-shirt gave him a rather nonchalant yet rebellious look. Accompanying him was a Buizel, tired and cranky from what presumably was a long trip.

The Ampharos also recognized the trainer, and immediately called out to him with the name that sprang to Blah's mind moments before. "Bob!"