“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go”

  - T.S. Eliot

  -Crying Crystal Cave F1 Sometime ago-

  A crimson orb arced through the glittering air, striking an offending stalagmite. Its true target, a nimble foal, darted between clusters of pink and purple crystals that rose like enchanted towers. An aspiring nurse to be chasing behind, Victoria’s long curls shimmered with the luster of roses brushed with gold. The elusive foal was a Galarian Ponyta, barely born yet already outpacing her with wild, effortless speed. This breed was made for endless running, and today proved no exception. Victoria had been performing her usual rounds, checking on newborn Pokémon and assigning each a Poké Ball marked with her family’s crest. But when the earthquake hit, panic seized the young Ponyta, sending it vaulting over gates, fences, and even the back wall of the house, until it vanished into the shimmering depths of Crying Crystal Cave.

  “I should have tried more in battle class or at least learned to throw a ball correctly,” Victoria complained as she huffed and puffed for air in an attempt to get within throwing range again.

  Victoria had claimed fourth place in her and Veronica’s school placements. Pouring all her energy into Pokémon biology, pathology, ecology, and psychology. She had skipped over battling and, crucially, never learned how to catch a Pokémon. Her impressive ranking, despite ignoring entire subjects, was a feat in itself. Yet now, when it mattered most, she found herself unprepared. Each Poké Ball she threw sailed off target, her lack of practice painfully obvious.

  Now, both were having to dodge as crystalline rain pored from the ceiling. Droplets of pink and purple liquid fell from stalagmites. This liquid substance manifested on the cave ceiling and hardened when it came into contact with anything other than itself. Over time, these droplets formed stalagmites that carried the droplets low before they dripped off and hardened on the cave floor. This strange sight lent itself to the ‘crying’ portion of its name. Sometimes, when these raindrops hit the ground, they hardened upside down, creating a spiked point that dug downward rather than reaching up. This phenomenon, this phenomenon, combined with various burrowing Pokémon that

  made their homes in caves created cave systems and often times connected into preexisting systems below the surface.

  “Why couldn’t you have run the other way, into town?! Someone could have helped me and I wouldn’t be scrapping these rocks from my skin!” she shouted after the Ponyta, droplets kept falling on her head and exposed arms leaving to her having to scrape them off and inevitably create sore spots, thankfully they never pulled anything more than a single strand of hair if any at all. Going bald was not nor was it ever in the cards.

  Galarian Ponyta stood apart from their Kantonian cousins, not as fire types but as psychics. Their manes shimmered like spun sugar rather than flickering flames, and they possessed an uncanny ability to sense the feelings within people and Pokémon alike. At the slightest hint of strong emotion be it stress, fear, or ill intent, they would dash away in a flash.

  “Like an earthquake scaring an entire stable, or now being In a cave filled with hostile wild Pokémon!” Victoria huffed and panted, she wasn’t like Veronica, she wasn’t built for physical exercise nor was she in particularly good shape.

  The harder she pushed herself, the farther Ponyta slipped away. Its wild, weaving path made every attempt to intercept it feel hopeless. All she could do was pray it would tire out before she did, or that it might bolt toward the cave exit to Sunburst City. Neither seemed likely anytime soon, so she pressed on, legs burning with every stride. At least Ponyta stuck to the upper ledges, probably guided by some instinct that warned it away from the more dangerous Pokémon lurking below. But peril was everywhere. The ground trembled with distant battles, echoing through the tunnels as wild Pokémon fought for scraps of territory. For now, luck was on her side, neither she nor Ponyta had drawn any unwanted attention. Suddenly, a burst of purple and yellow fire roared overhead, licking the cave walls and setting the path aglow. The sight sent Ponyta into a frenzy, fear propelling it even faster in the opposite direction.

  “Well at least were going up!” she cheered, even as sweat trickled down her face and stained into her clothes.

  “DUUUUUUDDE” A deep gravel voice shouted that Veronica immediately recognized as a Geodude.

  Looking up, Victoria could see just that, the rock and ground type Pokémon Geodude. Her first instinct was to break off from chasing Ponyta and check on the clearly hurt Pokémon, but if she lost Ponyta here, she’d likely never catch up to it, and it wasn’t like it was her Pokémon; it belonged to her family's stable. Something had flung the poor thing off a nearby cliff edge, smashing it into a far-right stalactite, causing the entire crystal structure to crack and fall, blocking another path and causing Ponyta to gallop in another direction.

  “Oh come the fu...Gimme a break!” Victoria started to shout her vocabulary, almost dipping. A side effect of V’s sometimes crass behavior.

  From that moment, a series of unfortunate events transpired one after another. In seemingly never ending in relentless waves. Pokémon clashed and tumbled dangerously close, stalactites crashed down with uncanny precision, and ordinary rocks rained from above, each one a near disaster. With her attention locked on the hazards overhead, Victoria failed to notice Ponyta vaulting over what seemed to be a harmless stretch of cave floor. Split attention, much like overconfidence precipitates a dizzying fall, as she learned in an instant. The seemingly sturdy ground was nothing more than a thin layer of dirt, which crumbled beneath her, plunging her into a hidden pit.

  “Oh...right...danger Seeennnseee!!!” Victoria howled as she fell down to a lower section of the cave.

  Above ground, the Ponyta pressed on as if nothing had happened, its stamina long since spent. Only fear kept the little foal’s legs churning. The Run Away ability granted it a burst of speed that seemed almost magical, especially when paired with its sharp, instinctive sense for danger. Together, these gifts made it a master of escape. But even with such advantages, the Ponyta was still flesh and blood, not a tireless machine. Eventually, exhaustion overtook it. Its pace faltered to a weary trot, muscles aching, tongue parched, and every step a plea for water.

  In an instant, the world spun wildly as something slammed into Ponyta’s side, hurling it against the cave wall. The impact sent a tremor through the cavern, and the inexperienced Ponyta collapsed, legs trembling as it struggled to rise. As the dust settled, a small figure emerged: upright, with a broad snout and a massive head crest that narrowed its eyes into sharp triangles. A rare mono dragon type known as Bagon, the rock head Pokémon. A fierce glint flashed in its gaze as it opened its jaws and blasted a torrent of purple and yellow flames, the force of which smashed Ponyta back into the stone.

  “Alright, alright, Sky, don’t cook it now,” a chuckle just as dark and malicious as the dragon could be heard appearing from the smoke. A simple toss of a Pokéball and the Ponyta was caught without much effort at all. “Thanks a lot, number four, you really did a lot of hard work for me,”

  The aftershocks hammered the earth, their force echoing through the wounded cave. The earthquake had already carved deep scars, splitting entire chambers apart. Familiar paths vanished behind heaps of rubble, while new, shadowy corridors yawned open where none had existed before. Stalactites, once hanging high and proud, crashed down to meet their fallen kin, shattering into shards that scattered across the stone. The cave floor resembled the aftermath of a powerful Pokémon’s stealth rocks, eventually, the chaos stilled into a minefield of jagged edges, each one eager to claim a careless step and pull its victim down like a jealous lover.

  These geological upheavals barely fazed the Pokémon who called the cave home. Though not used to true earthquakes, most were burrowers, well-versed in shifting stones, trembling ground, and sudden cave-ins. What truly unsettled them was the total rearrangement of their world: territories once divided by clear lines were now mashed together, as if someone had sliced out a chunk of the cave and slammed the pieces back into a single, jumbled whole. Scents that once marked the edges of each Pokémon’s domain now tangled with unfamiliar ones. Pokémon who had been content in their own little corners found themselves battling anew over heaps of earth that only faintly resembled what they once claimed. Life in the cave had not changed forever, but until the old balance returned, every day would be a little more perilous.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  It was well known that Crying Crystal Cave was sort of a reverse mountain. While it did not extend upward to carve out to split heaven, it instead burrowed so deep under ground that one might be able to venture out to the ocean if drilling out from its walls at a certain depth. Weaker and inexperienced Pokémon lived here on the top floor, which existed as the bridge between Breaksteak and Sunburst. This was where people referred to as Crying Crystal, but many knew its stronger, more battle-hardened, and rarer species lived below its surface. Deep below, where drilled out tunnels became claustrophobic pipelines of jagged stone edges and cutting crystalline spears. An entire ecosystem based solely on might makes right stirred underfoot.

  -Crying Crystal Cave bottom floor -

  A sharp hiss echoed as air burst from the once-sealed chamber, torchlight flickering wildly and casting bold shadows across the cavern. The floor was littered with the fallen forms of Pokémon, once fierce rulers of this subterranean world, now broken and still. Shards of pink and purple crystal, once jagged monuments to the cave’s harshness, lay shattered beneath the weight of those used as living battering rams. Some Pokémon groaned in pain, while others lay motionless, silent victims of the brutal law that ruled this place: only the strongest survive.

  Calling this scene a fact of nature was technically correct, at least in these depths, but its cause was anything but natural. Several figures stood a few feet from the fallen Pokémon, clad in sleeveless white shirts trimmed with gold, a blend of tank top and high-necked compression gear. Black sashes replaced belts, securing their matching lightweight trousers or skirts, which looked like strips of armored leather layered over short tights. Designs that resembled cracked earth etched all over their tops and bottoms, with one exception: the centerpiece, a perfect circle broken up into five equal parts of differing colors that caused a slightly clash with their white and gold attire, in brown, blue, gray, yellow and purple. They faced a door that was slowly opening, a colossal structure forged from rare metals and the cave’s abundant crystals. They had pried it open just over two hours ago, triggering a chain reaction that drew wild Pokémon from every corner. Now, the once-mighty creatures lay scattered, discarded like toys left behind by a careless child.

  “This had better be worth the effort and time,” the man front and center growled, checking his watch as they all waited to see what would happen.

  The amount of caves, temples, and shrines they’ve broken into this month alone in the name of their objective bordered on blasphemy. “If I see another shrine dedicated to Arceus, someone is going to pay,” he continued to grumble.

  Their deeds were nothing short of wicked. Maybe justice would catch up with them one day, but every soul here, from the highest admin to the lowliest grunt, had chosen this shadowy road. It seemed unlikely that any of this was truly devoted to Arceus. Whoever built this place had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep it hidden, even crafting a trap as alluring and deadly as a siren’s song for any who dared to trespass. ‘Archnight’, the main religion that worshiped Arceus as the divine creator of this world, was widespread, and even its many offshoots were widely accepted and had been for many years. Yet, no one had ever recorded what Arceus looked like. Still, Pokémon believed to be linked to the creator did exist: the elusive Unown, sometimes glimpsed in ancient ruins, and Mespirit, the lake guardian, the only one of its kind ever captured in a photograph and shared with the world.

  “Not to mention, if the public reports on Team Rocket being involved in those research attempts to clone Mew,” He thought, running a powerful hand through long spiky hair, “And the not so public research of them managing to clone it and create Mewtwo.”

  Needless to say, people had more than enough evidence to link back to Arceus to make its religion credible. Thus, there wouldn’t be any need for any Light-sworn to hide themselves, making an underground church highly illogical.

  “Still, could be a damned church for Giratina of all things.” His face scrunched up in a grimace, making him reflexively clutch a set of prayer beads that hung from his neck, creating an audible grinding noise as the wood rubbed together, drowned out by the still slowly opening door. “We’ll just have to hope this isn’t that.”

  “Quaesitor, sir, I believe it's opened enough for us to proceed.” A young man in a near identical outfit to his ran up to him, with one exception: his diamond piece had two broken pieces instead of four.

  He sighed again, looking down at the young man having his six-foot frame stand near an entire head taller than the boy. “As I’ve said before, you may use my name instead of my title, just call me Citro, while I’m sure Justen the Bellator wants her full name and title proclaimed, I assure you I do not.”

  The ancient mechanism groaned in protest as it struggled to pry open the colossal doors, but just as he had been promised, the opening was wide enough for them to slip through. Inside, they found a chamber that radiated opulence, echoing the grandeur of the doors yet surpassing them in artistry. Here, brilliance was not simply a matter of gold and jewels. One wall blazed with white lines so intense they threatened to blind him, while the opposite side was drenched in a black so profound it seemed to swallow the light. The lines twisted and spiraled, weaving together into elaborate mosaics. Only a single strand of each color broke free, meeting at the center where they merged and transformed into a shard of icy blue.

  Citro breathed out, “Finally, we found one,” in pure awe, “A temple dedicated to the original dragon and its three pieces.”

  “You mean the Draconid people, sir?” a member of his entourage spoke up.

  “Somewhat, the Draconid’s worshiped Rayquaza and were a splinter religion of their originators, those that came before them, those that held praise to the first dragon,” Citro explained, still enraptured, having now finally found it, pointing upward to the ceiling.

  Above them stretched a kaleidoscopic mural, a swirling vision of what the original might have been, its form hinting at the essence of a dragon but also so much more. Along every conceivable edge was a fractal, each one morphing into the familiar shapes of dragon Pokémon. Legendary guardians like Rayquaza and Zygarde mingled with the likes of Dragonite and Garchomp, creating a tapestry both grand and intimate. It didn’t so much as dare onlookers to witness it so much it commanded them to gaze upon its truth, divinity distilled down onto a canvas. ether, they stared, pupils widening, swept up in a violent ebb and flow of emotions that repeatedly battered at their psyche.

  Citro clapped his hands, a sound that shot off like a gun and broke their trance. “Don’t stare up at the mural, brothers, lest you be trapped.”

  The closer an artist came to depicting any form of one of the true gods, be it Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina, the art piece tended to drip feed some of their power through it. Apparently, the first dragon counts as a true god, meaning they were on the right track to finding what they came here for.

  “Come, another door further back, maybe what we're looking for, or a clue as to how to find it.”

  -Crying Crystal Cave top floor entrance -

  Each step dragged a ragged, gasping breath from her lungs. She pressed forward with only half her heart in the effort, the other half tangled in doubts, anxieties, and above all, fear. Moments ago, she had charged ahead with reckless conviction, forgetting every safety measure she should have taken before leaving the safety of town. No map of the cave, no careful plan to find her friend with minimal risk, not even a Pokémon by her side. Panic had swept away all reason, leaving her to stumble into the cave unprepared and exposed.

  “If someone had told me I’d be running through this cave with nothing on me I’d have laughed at and fought them!” Veronica thought

  Still, she could not escape the truth: every protest, every angry word only revealed how powerless she felt. Her friend needed her. She would sacrifice anything to see Victoria safely home. The sight of a few hoof prints was all it took to confirm her instincts. That small sign swept away the shadows of doubt that haunted her, and even if she questioned her choice to come, she knew she had been right about where V had gone.

  “Good job, Veronica, now you just have to get you, her, and a wild Ponyta back home safely!” She thought, sarcasm dripping from every word. At this point she’d gone too far, too deep to turn back now and her only option was forward or bust “Bust being maiming, falling into a pit trap, crushed by loose rock, complete cave collapse, attacked by a wild Pokémon,” her mental list of everything that could go wrong etched one by one into her mind and psyche, yet she ran on.

  The thought that she might be in over her head kept creeping in, especially as she flinched at every shadow that even vaguely resembled a Pokémon. Life in town, surrounded by tamed and cheerful Pokémon, felt like a different world compared to the tangled wilds she faced now. At school, everything was safe and predictable, even during weekly mock battles with premade teams or, for the advanced students like her, when they got to craft their own lineups from a broader selection. Back then, everything was controlled and secure. Out here, though, there were no lessons that could prepare her for the raw unpredictability of the wild. This was something she had to learn firsthand.

  “Gotta focus, looks like they came though here” Veronica panted, eyes scanning the ground for hooves and scuffs made from boots. The environment itself had been through a massive change because of the earthquake and from the looks of it, aftershocks were still wreaking havoc. Sounds of Pokémon battling could be heard in the distance “Likely territory disputes, a Galarian Ponyta wouldn’t run anywhere near that give their precognition toward harmful intent, so maybe the exit,”