Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Guiding Light is a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Fan Fic written by Ambyssin
. It features an original story set in an Alternate Universe where most of the events of the canon games took place. More specifically, it places a heavy focus on ideas and Pokémon from the Generation VII games. After two years and three months of continuous weekly or bi-weekly updates, Ambyssin completed the fic on November 9th, 2019, just prior to the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield.
In the year 2015, Shane is a young adult, meandering aimlessly through life, who's quite obsessed with Pokémon. When returning home from his job one night, he's involved in a major car accident... only to wake up on the shores of a beach, having been found by a talking Riolu named Tessa. Sound familiar? Well, Shane quickly makes it clear to her that all of his memories are intact. In fact, he's downright ecstatic to learn he's become a Pokémon, since he thinks that means he's been summoned to save the world. With his knowledge of Pokémon media, he expects everything to be a cakewalk.
However, he soon realizes this version of the Pokémon world has a lot of things he's unfamiliar with. The biggest being that he's an ice-type Vulpix. So, when Shane insists on forming an exploration team with Tessa, things go far from smoothly. The two struggle to work together properly. An issue that's compounded by the fact that Tessa's dealing with her own familial struggles. Meanwhile, Pokémon across the continent are getting transformed into vicious, bloodthirsty monsters with some elements of various Ultra Beasts spliced into their appearances. The culprits appear to be a certain Espeon and Umbreon duo. In trying to investigate, Shane and Tessa find themselves pulled into the middle of a conflict far bigger than either of them could imagine.
Early-Installment Weirdness is in play for the first few episodes, which read more like a parody fic. Cerebus Syndrome hits the fic around twenty chapters in. The story can be found on FFN and Serebii. In addition, Ambyssin started up a blog for the fic in late 2018 where he posts trivia, has the cast answer questions, and roleplays with other Pokémon blogs in-character. While the fic is veering into Archive Panic territory, Ambyssin has lumped the chapters into episodes. In his own words, each episode is an individual arc, much like the story chapters in the source material.
Tropes featured in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Guiding Light:
- Absence of Evidence: During Episode 6, Shane insists that Lycanroc is part of Team Fang and out to cause trouble for the guild. When asked about his reasoning, all he can come up with is the fact that Lycanroc calls him Snowy, the same nickname Sneasel uses. His lack of any definitive evidence causes everyone to side with Lycanroc.
- Abusive Parents: Before she left Aeon Town entirely, Prisma was emotionally abusive to Tessa and Gallian. This is partly due to the fact that she is a human who got trapped in the Pokémon world and, after falling for someone similar to her husband, tried to make her new family Replacement Goldfish for her old one.
- The Ace: Team Captivate are considered the top active exploration team in the Horizon Continent, until Zero captures them and infects them with the Prism Virus.
- Team Go-Getters certainly qualify. Both Blaziken and Swampert can mega evolve. And, despite their ages, they're able to take down the infected Team Poképals while bantering with one another.
- Achievements in Ignorance: Magearna can dual-wield attacks. Why? For Science!, of course!
- Alchemy Is Magic: Employed liberally, especially with regards to Necrozma and Silvally's creations and some of their abilities.
- All There in the Manual: Much like the Kirby games, chapters that feature boss battles have accompanying descriptions about the bosses in question. While most of it is fluff, the descriptions for the clones Ultra Tapu Lele summons offer important information. Namely, that Prisma fell into an Ultra Wormhole as a result of Rayquaza destroying the meteor that threatened the planet in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team, and Darkrai destroyed Temporal Tower by trapping Solgaleo and Lunala in nightmares and sending them to attack it.
- Alternate Universe: Shane progressively learns of the differences between the world he's in and the games he's familiar with. One example is that looplets have existed for a very long time.
- Anger Born of Worry: Happens a few times, like when Espeon chews out Shane after his plan to placate Lycanroc fails and he gets blasted by a dozen Flash Cannons.
- Antagonist Title: In "Astral Rebirth," Team Radiance learns that "Guiding Light" is, in fact, what Necrozma was called before his light was taken from him.
- Apocalypse How: Necrozma seeks to cause a Class X-5.
- Arc Villain: There are a few of these sprinkled throughout the fic, including Solrock in Episode 3, Feraligatr in Special Episode 1, Marshadow in Special Episode 2, and Primarina in Episode 13.
- Arc Words: A variation on the alchemical tria prima, with, "Mind, body, spirit, and balance."
- Ass Shove: When Tessa goes into shock following her evolution, Healer Salazzle needs to administer a berry juice suppository and asks everyone to leave. Everyone gets the memo, except Shane. He immediately runs off upon learning what Healer means.
- Awful Truth: In "Lingering Sense of Doubt," Shane learns that Solgaleo and Necrozma caused his fatal car accident, then Necrozma vaporized both Solgaleo and his dying human body. Shane manages to avoid slipping into a Heroic BSoD thanks to Latias crash-landing on the beach with life-threatening injuries.
- Back for the Dead: Several episodes after being sidelined with an injury from fighting Necrozma, Braviary reappears to chew out Metagross, only to be killed by Zero.
- An episode earlier sees the surprise return of Solrock, who's immediately captured, and later blown up by, Necrozma.
- Battle Couple: Gallian and Zoroark. A few episodes later, Team Paradise shows off some interesting combo attacks.
- A villainous example would be Espeon and Umbreon. While they're infected, of course.
- Beach Episode: Episode 13 takes place at Circadian Coast, a resort and spa.
- Berserk Button: Do not call Tessa useless or a failure.
- For Gallian, hurting Zoroark will set him off.
- Don't talk about ley lines around Silvally. Similarly, try not bring up his mask.
- A comedic example would be messing up Shane's fur.
- The Big Bad Shuffle: Zero and Necrozma. Though the latter starts out as The Dragon to the former, he eventually strikes out on his own and both end up trying to get to Temporal Tower, with Zero looking to hit the Reset Button and Necrozma wanting to destroy it.
- Blessed with Suck: Gallian's disaster sense. While he can use it to sense impending trouble, his lack of control over it causes him a great deal of panic and anxiety. Best shown in Special Episode 3, where he chooses to frighten Tessa, then run away from home.
- Break the Cutie: Poor Latias.
- Breather Episode: Episode 13 has a much lighter tone compared to the episodes surrounding it. Rather than fighting the Prism Virus, the episode sees Team Radiance going into a dungeon that Primarina has, essentially, turned into an electric rave. They end up getting recruited to serve as the opening acts for Primarina.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Prisma became this for Tessa at the end of Episode 7. Then she learns that her mother is Zero.
- To a lesser extent, Espeon becomes this to Shane after she claims to have joined Zero of her own free will. He gets over it fairly quickly, thanks in part to having a crush on her.
- Lugia's respect for Rayquaza disappears when he learns that Rayquaza physically assaulted Latias.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Espeon and Umbreon. Doubles as a Mythology Gag. Two Jellicent published a gossip article about their relationship, referencing this promotional video for Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, which claimed the two were in a Secret Relationship despite Gates depicting them as a Brother–Sister Team. Umbreon even admits that he had to stop Espeon from feeding the Jellicent duo to Kyurem!
- Brother–Sister Team: Espeon and Umbreon. Tessa and Gallian, too, though they only fight together against Metagross.
- Bullet Hell: Used by Stakataka Deluxe. While under Lycanroc's control, it spams missiles that contain a mixture of Mind Blown heads and elemental attributes from Lycanroc's captives.
- Butch Lesbian: Seraph, a Zeraora working for the Ultra Recon Squad when Luxeira and Sticky join, is this mixed with shades of Drill Sergeant Nasty.Seraph: Alright, listen up dweebs! Rule one: you don't talk unless I say to talk. Rule two: you don't move unless I say to move. If you can't follow those, then I'm gonna kick your asses so hard your grandkids will feel it in their rears. Do I make myself clear?
- Butt-Monkey: Shane himself. He's routinely dunked in water, Covered in Gunge, victim to Amusing Injuries, and teased or called a dork by others. Played with in the sense that he brings some of the misfortune upon himself, thanks to his impulsive behavior.Mew: Sheesh, I thought Darkrai was just being his usual grumpy-grump self when he called you a dense doofus.Mew: Because he's a grumpy-grump! Good grief, is all that floof blocking your hearing? Hoo boy, I've really got my work cut out here, don't I?
- Call to Adventure: Shane believes his arrival in the Pokémon world to be this. However, it's later revealed that Necrozma brought him here to unwittingly help get his core back.
- The Cavalry: Team Radiance serves as this to the Rem Canyon expedition team after Metagross attacks them.
- Episode 15 also has a few instances of this in some of the bigger battles.
- Character Development: The fic's speciality. As one reviewer put it:eldestoyster: With such a huge cast, Ambyssin could be forgiven for letting some of his characters fall by the wayside – and while they do sometimes fade into the background to let others take centre stage, none of the main characters (and surprisingly few of the minor ones) last through the story unchanged.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The shiny Ho-Oh from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. Shane mentions it in an off-hand remark to Magearna in Episode 4, causing her to freak out. Then, over one-hundred parts later it's revealed that said Ho-Oh does exist and is, in fact, the world's original Ho-Oh.
- Chick Magnet: Shane is this during the Sunset Shoals mission and on the blog, much to his confusion.
- Combining Mecha: Stakataka Deluxe. It has Celesteela arm-cannons mounted to it and can even turn its legs into tank treads!
- Continuity Nod: To Pokémon Mystery Dungeon as a whole, seeing as events from each game impact the story.
- Crippling Overspecialization: As a Riolu, Tessa only has various physical attacks at her disposal. This proves to make battling a huge struggle for her in Episodes 8-11.
- Crisis Crossover:
- The plan to storm the Prism Wastelands sees Team Radiance parterning up with Team Go-Getters, Team Poképals, Team Paradise, Mew, and Latias. Meanwhile, Magearna is working with Ampharos, Mawile, Cresselia, and Ninetales to revive Necrozma's victims.
- A non-canon example takes place in the 2019 April Fools' Day Special. In it, Team Radiance and Team Alloy, the heroic quartet of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Hands Of Creation, work together to stop Ultra Necrozma from destroying the multiverse.
- Danger Sense: As an Absol, Gallian has a disaster sense. Unfortunately, he's not very good at controlling it and it leads to panic attacks that, among other things, cause him to abandon Tessa and, later, Zoroark.
- Darker and Edgier: Eventually outclasses the source material, with heavy themes including mental illness, substance abuse, sexuality, and suicide.
- Darkest Hour: By the end of Episode 14 several of the world's most important gods have had their light taken, Temporal Tower has been obliterated, and Zero is ready to use the Time Gears and Dialga's powers to forcibly reset the Pokémon world's timeline.
- A Day in the Limelight: In addition to Special Episodes, occasional bonus parts — some of which are Holiday Episodes — put other characters in the spotlight, sometimes with a completely different narration style, to boot.
- To the surprise of many, "Something to Sink Your Teeth Into" is this for Jangmo-o.
- Despair Event Horizon: The death of Incineroar sent Prisma over the edge. She began making scenes in front of the guild and emotionally abusing her kids. This would ultimately lead to the chain of events that turned her into Zero.
- Similarly, a hazing incident at a party in high school proves to be this for Nicky. He reaches out to Shane, desperate for a Hope Spot. When Shane ignores him, he commits suicide.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Upon evolving, Silvally dishes out a major Curbstomp Battle to the Unown swarm, which had been using their powers to switch between copies of Entei, Raikou, and Suicune.
- So far, Necrozma has infected Lugia, killed Yveltal, and taken the spirits of Zygarde, Hoopa, Palkia, and Giratina.
- Special Episode 4 has this in spades. First, the butterfly formed from Volcarona's remains one-shots Rayquaza. Then, in the next chapter, what's left of Necrozma appears to destroy Xerneas.
- Doomed Hometown: At the start of Episode 10, Necrozma lays waste to Post Town and Pokémon Paradise.
- Door Stopper: There are currently over a hundred parts spread across twenty one different episodes. The word counter on FFN stands at over one million. However, it should be noted that Ambyssin has author's notes and responses to anonymous guest reviews at the end of almost every chapter, which serves to inflate that number. Still, it's quite shocking when you consider the fic was only started in August 2017.
- The blog isn't much better. In it's first six months, it accumulated over a thousand posts.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Ambyssin seems fond of inverting gender stereotypes for several species. Shane is a male Vulpix (later Ninetales). Bruxish and Primarina are also male.
- The Empath: Latias, by her own admission. It's apparently a species trait.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The Aeon Observatory which, much like Wigglytuff's guild, consists of multiple sublevels, complete with bedrooms, a mess hall, an infirmary, shower and bathing areas, and a lab for Magearna.
- Eldritch Abomination: Necrozma, full stop. It's revealed he's the result of Golem using alchemy to pump a human spirit full of ley lines and light energy. In Special Episode 4, it's revealed the source of Necrozma's powers (and Ax-Crazy mindset) is Void Termina.
- A (eventually) friendly example lies in Null. In fact, he was Golem's first attempt at making a god killer.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: As expected in a Pokémon fic. Leads to several Wrong Genre Savvy moments when Shane thinks he knows a Horizon Pokémon's typing, only to be proven incorrect.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Shane triggering a Z-Move to save Tessa from being infected by Espeon and Umbreon.
- Emergency Transformation: Describes each of the main trio's evolutions.
- Happens to Gallian in Episode 14. He mega evolves and beats back the infected Team Paradise members before they can kill Zoroark.
- Evil All Along: Metagross, though out of sheer paranoia. It wouldn't be Pokémon Mystery Dungeon otherwise.
- Evil Plan: Zero intends to kill of all the gods. This later progresses into gathering up the Time Gears to forcibly rewrite the world's timeline so the gods never existed in the first place.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: Happens to Temporal Tower, thanks to Zero.
- There was one on Celestial Island that served as Zero's base, but it hasn't been seen since Episode 8.
- Explosive Results: What happens when Latias pushes her Mega Evolution to its limit? Her looplet explodes, of course!Haxorus: Guess we'll have to tell Jirachi his calculations weren't as perfect as he thought.
- Eye Scream: Zoroark had his left eye lacerated by Prisma as she was transforming into Zero. It's completely covered in scar tissue and, unlike most injuries Pokémon receive, can't be cured by Heal Pulse.
- Fastball Special: Team Go-Getters' "Brave Bird Special." Swampert hurls Blaziken at a foe, who then strikes with Brave Bird.
- In the 2019 April Fools' special, a Mega-Evolved Tessa hurls Haxorus Demitri at Giratina. It actually works. Doubles as a Shout-Out to the Lucario from Ashes of the Past.
- From Bad to Worse: Things get bad enough in Episode 14 when Temporal Tower falls. Then, to add insult to injury, Metagross attacks Magearna's expedition crew to steal their Dawn Shard. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, the heroes lose all the Dawn Shards, thanks to Lycanroc swiping them.
- Genius Bruiser: Metagross, whose mannerisms and behavior are reminiscent of an AI, but can dish out Meteor Mashes and Zen Headbutts like nobody's business. A pity most of them are directed toward Team Radiance and their friends.
- Genre Shift: Episode 13 is, essentially, a musical.
- The Glomp: Tessa does this to Gallian after they fend off Ultra Milotic and her Nihilego pair.
- Giratina seems fond of these.
- Gone Horribly Right: Both of Golem's creations could be considered this. Especially since, together, they end up realizing his vision of eliminating the gods from the world.
- Grave-Marking Scene: Oranguru does this at a small memorial he made for his mate.
- Group Hug: Several, but most notably happens after Tessa's hatch-day party in Episode 7, Shane and Tessa convincing Silvally to return to the guild in Episode 9, and Tessa breaking down after reading Shane's farewell letter.
- Handicapped Badass: Zoroark holds his own pretty well considering he lost an eye and an ear.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Team Radiance successfully defeat Espeon and Umbreon... but Sylveon and Eevee still have their spirits taken by Zero, anyway.
- Heel–Face Turn: Gallian, after Tessa beats some sense into him.
- The Hero Dies: In order to reverse Necrozma's destruction of the planet, Shane flies into the sun and triggers a supernova, burning out his spirit in the process. It's later revealed he somehow survived by sealing himself up in the Ultra Nexus.
- Heroic BSoD: Happens to Tessa after the Mellath Bog mission and Silvally after his evolution.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In back to back episodes, no less! First, when the chips are down against Zero, Silvally uses Explosion to sever her connection to Dialga. He should've perished, but Necrozma intervened. Then, in the next episode, we have Shane sacrificing himself to recreate the PMD world.
- Hope Spot: Ambyssin has the cojones to pull this one off 'twice' in the span of three chapters!
- Reinforcements arrive to help Team Radiance turn the tide against Zero, only for her to seize control of the situation, cast the reinforcements off the tower, and lead Silvally to make his Heroic Sacrifice.
- A short while later, it seems as though the newly-revived gods have Dusk Mane Necrozma on the ropes, only to learn too late they were attacking a doppelganger made from Zygarde's spirit. The 'real' Necrozma already regained his true form... and proceeds to blow up the entire planet, taking everyone's spirits for himself.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Shane struggles to do much of anything in his first few battles.Shane: Dang it! Why can't I make an attack? Where's the fire? Come on, stupid, girly Vulpix body. Flame on! Torch 'em! Get all fired up! Fire in the hole!
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: As of the final two episodes Espeon and Silvally are this as a couple.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Played with. Both Shane and Tessa confide in one another how badly they wanted to be world-famous heroes. However, after the events of Episode 13, Shane admits he didn't like getting a lot of attention and Tessa concedes that she never considered the burdens that come with being a hero and worries about what, if anything, she'll be able to do with her life if Team Radiance succeeds.
- In the Back: Metagross kills Incineroar by attacking him from behind and knocking him off a cliff.
- Jerkass: Shane has shades of this, initially. He gets better. Gallian also fits this trope and, unlike Shane, only softens up enough to become a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. And then there's Lycanroc...
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Averted in Shane's case. Instead, we get Magearna and Mewtwo, who are the only remnants of the original world that Arceus wiped out. While we don't know how Magearna lost her memories, we do know that Arceus is responsible for erasing Mewtwo's.
- Madness Mantra: Metagross descends into this when his plan to steal the Dawn Shards begins to fall apart.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Necrozma, Devourer of Light.
- No-Sell: Thanks to the RKS System, Silvally is able to do this in battle. A villainous example lies with Zero, whose Ominous Visual Glitch attacks frequently do this.
- Offstage Villainy: Happens on occasion, such as Necrozma killing Zygarde and capturing Yveltal.
- Olympus Mons: Play huge roles in the story. One's even a main character!]However, many of them have their spirits taken by Zero or Necrozma.
- Primordial Chaos: Ultra Space, according to Necrozma. This is because it was created from a big bang accidentally triggered by Void Termina.
- Rage Breaking Point: Tessa has hit this twice so far. First, when Gallian calls her useless, she responds by curbstomping him to the point where she nearly kills him with a Z-Move. Then, in the next episode, her temper slips again and triggers a mega evolution she can't control. She comes dangerously close to stabbing Shane with her Metal Claws.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Team Radiance, especially once they team up with Gallian, Zoroark, and Team Paradox.
- Ret-Gone: Zero intends to purge the gods from the timeline. She gathers the Time Gears and captures Dialga in order to make it happen.
- The Reveal: Several big ones throughout the course of the fic.
- Special Episode 1 ends with two major reveals. Tessa's mom is human and her dad was Dead All Along.
- The first Christmas special, "Snowfall," shows us that Incineroar, Tessa, and Gallian are Replacement Goldfish for the human family that Prisma lost.
- At the end of the Episode 7, we learn that, Shane's only friend committed suicide, and he failed to realize said friend was depressed.
- Then, after numerous hints, the 2018 Valentine's Day special confirms that Zero is Tessa's mom and Shane's human friend, Nicky, is Necrozma.
- The bonus part "Heart & Soul" shows us that the world's creation myth is a lie. Arceus made the Pokémon world using the remnants of a world he accidentally destroyed. Said world had humans, the original 151 Pokémon, and Magearna living in peace. Somehow, Magearna and Mewtwo survived, but neither remembers the old world.
- After heavy foreshadowing that Solgaleo's spirit is inside of Shane, Episode 13 reveals that not only did Solgaleo have a hand in causing Shane's fatal car accident, but Necrozma vaporized him alongside Shane's dying human body.
- Running Gag: Shane's fur getting wet, messy, or Covered in Gunge. This is usually followed by him throwing a fit, then freaking out about the fact that he's so concerned with his appearance.
- Shout-Out: Ambyssin is a huge Kirby fan. The fic's got so many nods to the series it's led to reviewers joking that Guiding Light is actually a Kirby fic. May be intentional, since Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon featured a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for one of Kirby's fan-favorite villains.
- The fic isn't even subtle about this. The Jambastion sigil is on everything related to the Prism Virus and Void Termina is the fic's Greater-Scope Villain... even if its name hasn't been properly dropped.
- Spanner in the Works: The reason why Shane was going to be summoned into the Pokémon world. Necrozma wanted him to be this to Zero's plans, so he could get his core back from her.
- The Stoic: Null, before shattering his mask. Metagross acts this way, until his Sanity Slippage kicks in and it's shown to be a facade.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Shane the human who in reality is Dark Matter from Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon ... or at least part of him. He's a product of him trying to separate itself from Necrozma to try to have a normal life using ley lines, ultra space and fragments of the spirit of the REAL Shane... who is dead.
- True Companions: It takes Team Radiance a while to form solid bonds. Even in the later episodes, they find themselves wondering if their friendship is truly genuine.Tessa: There's a voice in my head that keeps telling me that this 'friendship' of ours isn't really a friendship.
Shane: Urk. I, um, as corny as it sounds, I'd like to think that the struggles we've faced are what's brought us closer together. [beat] Oof, yeah that really does sound lame.Tessa: Yeah. I guess that's where the problem is. I can't help but wonder what would happen if we were to defeat Necrozma... and you were allowed to stay here, of course. Would we still get along? - Villain Episode: Special Episode 4 is mostly centered on Necrozma and Void Termina.
- Watching the Sunset: Team Radiance does this together in the "Memories" bonus part.
- Wham Episode: Episodes 7-9 and the back half of Episode 14.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Zero and Necrozma are locked in a game of this for several episodes. Both are trying to work behind the scenes to get the means to control time. Eventually, they end up facing off and Zero takes advantage of Necrozma being weakened from battle to purge him from Lunala using Manaphy's Heart Swap.
- You Fool!: Being a Large Ham, Necrozma is particularly fond of dropping these when he's Chewing the Scenery.
