Roms have always came before a emulator. It's just a copy of the data stored on a game cartridge. Sure, takes some time to figure out how to dump them from the cartridge, but it's still comparatively easy.
3ds rom dumping has been possible since late 2011.
And X/Y were dumped a day before the official release date. No emulator yet, won't be for a couple more years at least, but there is a 3ds flash card out and the team behind it is working to make X/Y playable on it. Given there record so far, the odds are good that they will be able to.