Here's the next chapter from the potato who believes in unicorns! Enjoy!
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Celestia's amethyst eyes slowly cracked open. She sat up, yawning as she did. Something warm sat against her, moving with steady and slow breathing. The Alicorn looked to her side, seeing the familiar sight of Arceus fast asleep with his body slightly curled around her. Celestia smiled before rising from the bed quietly.
It was still dark outside, and it wasn't quite time for the sun to rise. Celestia decided to take a walk through the palace halls to wake herself before proceeding to raise the sun. She allowed her thoughts to wander as she did.
Arceus hadn't left yet, which surprised Celestia. She expected him to be gone even before she got up to raise the sun. She wasn't complaining, but she just found it strange. He was so determined to find and stop Darkrai from... Whatever he was planning to do, Celestia figured Arceus wouldn't even care to sleep.
Celestia shook her thoughts away, noticing that there were no guards lining the halls as there should have been. In fact, the halls were eeriely quiet...
"Must be their break." Celestia thought outloud. However, as the sun princess continued on, she failed to notice the serpentine shadow quietly crawling across the walls, watching her with red and yellow eyes...
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Luna watched the stars in the sky, her head resting on her hoof. She observed through a window, her eyes nearly closed as the morning approached. In just a few minutes, she would have to summon up her powers and lower the moon to make way for her sister's morning. Giratina and Arceus should have been gone by now.
Luna probably wouldn't get the chance to even say goodbye to her protector, the renegade pokémon and the Lord of the Distortion World. She was quite upset that they had to spend their time looking for some "Darkrai" character while they were here. Luna wanted Giratina to be here for her, not to look for some dangerous creature. She wished she could go with them, but Arceus and Celestia both would say no.
Through her musings, she didn't see the two figures creeping out of the shadows right behind her.
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Arceus' gentle snoring was broken as he woke up. His head shot up, glancing around the room. His brother Giratina had stolen Luna's bed right next to his and Celestia's bed.
Speaking of Celestia, she wasn't laying next to him as she should have been. Perhaps she had already gone to raise the sun. The alpha pokémon slowly floated off the bed, stretching his tired limbs. Stretching his long neck, Arceus noticed the time. 7:00 AM... Yet... The sun wasn't up. It was still pitch-black dark outside. He looked over at his brother before approaching him and nudging him gently.
Giratina raised his golden plated head, "Yes...?"
"Where is Luna?" Arceus asked.
Giratina looked around, "Hm... I believe she doesn't sleep during the night."
"But how come the sun hasn't come up yet?" Arceus stated, "It's much past its time."
Giratina looked outside, noticing that it was still dark. He then looked at the clock on the wall.
"Brother..." The renegade started, his black and red eyes staring into his sibling's emerald and red, "Are you implying that something bad is going to happen?"
"I'm not," Arceus replied, heading for the door, "I'm implying that something bad has already happened."
Giratina sensed the worry in his brother's usually strong and confident voice. They headed out the door together, immediately discovering all of the palace guards knocked out and scattered about the hall.
"What's going on?" Giratina asked.
Arceus looked all around, locating a guard that was half-awake. The alpha pokémon approached him, crouching down to his level, "Sir knight, what has happened?"
The guard coughed. His fur was coated in a strange, black gunk. His armor was dented in many places. One of his eyes were swollen over, signaling someone had hit him very hard. Seeing that the guard was too damaged to speak, Arceus used a healing attack to heal him back to health.
"I don't know, Lord Arceus sir," The guard began, "I was walking along the halls when something grabbed me and beat me until everything went black. I didn't get time to look at the attacker."
"The princesses!" Giratina cried, "The attacker might have gotten them too!"
"In that case, we must hurry," Arceus stated, "Come! Quickly! We mustn't waste any time!"
"Agreed!" Giratina replied before they took off down the hall. Both brothers moved quickly, checking every room and hallway. They tried to check the throne room, but the doors were locked. Using a Shadow Claw attack, Giratina broke the door open, allowing entry. In the throne room, they discovered both princesses with frightened looks on their faces. They stood rooted to the floor, unable to move from the spot and run to greet their protectors.
"Arceus! Giratina!" Celestia cried, "Run!"
"What?" Giratina asked, "What are you talking about?"
"What's wrong?" Arceus added, "Tell us what's going on!"
"Don't ask questions!" Luna screamed desperately, "Just run!"
Both legendary brothers attempted to approach them, but a cloud of pitch-black smoke appeared between them. Two figures took shape within the smoke, pushing Arceus and Giratina further away from the princesses. The smoke cleared, showing a stallion and a phantom-like creature now standing between the princesses and the legendaries.
"Darkrai!" Giratina growled, taking an attack stance with his brother quickly following, "And... Er...?"
Giratina's cluelessness caused the stallion to sigh, "King Sombra, you fool! Enemy to the princesses and the once mighty king of the Crystal Empire!"
Arceus advanced foward, crouched down in a battle stance, "Leave the princesses alone." He growled in a surprisingly calm tone, "Let them go before you force me to do something rash."
"What do you even want with them?" Giratina asked. The question caused both villains to chuckle condescendingly.
"For vengeance," Darkrai replied, "Both me and my new ally decided that we should rip you and the princesses apart."
"Taking the princesses would prove to weaken you all," Sombra added, "Holding them for ransom would certainly improve our standpoints as well."
An orb began sparking at Arceus' face, "Let them go."
An orb also sparked from Giratina's mouth, "Now."
"You can't do anything to us." Darkrai snarled.
"We dare you to try." Sombra said with a slight chuckle.
This made Arceus very mad. The alpha pokémon suddenly flew up into the air, an orb fully formed in front of his face.
"DO NOT TEST ME!" He roared before he fired the orb. It split off into many different beams of light, forming Arceus' signature attack: Judgement. The beams flew right towards the two shadowy beings who did not make an effort to avoid them. The attack pounded the floor of the castle, leaving huge craters and breaking the stain glass windows in the room.
As the smoke cleared, Arceus was shocked to see that his attack had failed. Darkrai, Sombra, and the princesses were completely unharmed. Everything else was destroyed by Arceus' attack; all except the spot he was aiming at.
"Impossible!" The alpha pokémon growled, "That should have vaporized you both! You aren't strong enough to block my attacks yet!"
"They may not be," Another voice echoed through the room, "But guess who is~?"
The legendaries and the princesses both froze in place while Sombra and Darkrai's smug looks only deepened.
"Sister!" Luna whimpered to Celestia, "It's him! He's escaped again!"
"That's right, Lulu dear!" The voice called out again, "He's baaaaaaack!"
At that very moment, the legendary brothers were blinded by a golden light. Now standing in the middle of Darkrai and Sombra was a newcomer; an incredibly patchwork-like creature of many different animal parts.
"What in the name of..." Giratina started to ask, turning to Sombra and Darkrai, "What is that monstrosity?"
Before the two shadowy beings could answer, the "monstrosity" pushed his way to the front, taking center stage. "Correction," He said, "'Who' is that monstrosity. The name's Discord, the almighty and -might I say so myself- handsome spirit of chaos and disharmony."
Sombra stepped foward, slightly pushing Discord out of his way, "You see, me and my companion are not at full power yet. It will probably be a few more days before we can hope to be so. Therefore, we recruited the help of Equestria's most powerful enemy."
"I didn't think it would work," Darkrai said to Sombra, "I was wrong. He's stronger than the alpha pokémon himself!"
"Thanks for the flattery, Rags," Discord chuckled, causing Darkrai to growl a little at the stupid nickname, "And look! You promised me vengeance, and you were right! The princesses are our's now..."
"Let them go!" Giratina demanded. His body was cracking with a shadowy aura, preparing for attack. Arceus was also preparing another Judgement attack, ready to destroy the princesses' captors.
At that very moment, Discord smiled evilly and clicked his eagle claw. The two princesses in question disappeared in a flash of light, leaving no trace of them anywhere. This only made the brothers angrier.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Discord apologized sarcastically, "I thought you said make them go away. I'm so so sorry..."
"Bring them back!" Arceus demanded.
"We'll be happy to bring them back," Darkrai began, "With a price..." G
iratina snarled, "What do you want?"
"Your surrender," Sombra finished, "As well as the throne to Equestria, the Pokémon World, and the Distortion World."
"Never!" Arceus roared, "I would rather die than give my kingdom to you fiends!"
"And so would I!" Giratina added, "I shall protect the Distortion World with my life!"
"It's either that." Darkrai replied. His single blue eye flashed murderously, "Or the princesses shall perish. You have exactly five days starting at high noon to make the right decision. When the time is up and you haven't given in to our demands, Celestia and Luna will die."
Discord snickered, "Oooh! I like you both already! I can't wait to finally rid of the princesses!"
Both Sombra and Darkrai ignored him as Sombra continued with the ransom demands, "We'll be waiting in the Crystal Empire for you to come and tell us your final decision. Until then, we bid you farewell."
"Goodbye." Darkrai added in a serious voice.
"Arrivederci!" Discord finished, completely ruining the seriousness with his jolly tone.
With that, the three villains disappeared, leaving Arceus and Giratina to themselves. Arceus turned to his brother slowly, eyes filled with worry.
"We..." He started, "Need help..."