Pokemon Magic: A Knight of Nightmares

No signal.

Raven sighed softly and shut the mobile device, simply letting it hang loosely in her hand as she failed to bring herself to throw it at a nearby tree. The idea was there, but she simply couldn't conjure the energy or will to it. She finally loosened her grip enough to let it simply slip from her pale fingers and land with the rest of her useless machines as she leaned against the tree behind her.

The now-empty hand brushed through her dark hair, tucking it behind her ear in a motion that had long lost its comforting quality in its familiarity, and her eyes drifted along the thin streams of sunlight breaking through the canopy of the forest she had found herself in upon waking.

No phone, no map, and no encyclopedia. She was completely cut off from the network. She'd heard of things like this. Lost trainers. People who just disappeared, falling off the radar and never appearing again.

A normal person would be scared, she supposed. But Raven? Raven had given up that particular emotion as being unproductive a long time ago.

A soft, crooning, "Niiiiiiido..." broke the silence, followed by the sound of some lumbering steps, and Raven looked over at the sound. Belladonna's thick tail jerked from side to side and her large, wide ears were pinned back as her clawed forelimbs clenched and unclenched, gripping at nothing. For a beast with venomous spikes, thick armour, and the strength to break a tree in half, Belladonna looked exactly like an anxiety-ridden child in that moment.

And it was no mystery who the mother was in this scenario. Raven beckoned Belladonna over, forcing a small smile. Her nidoqueen crooned again and closed the rest of the distance. She was tall, but she hunched her posture, her foreclaws brushing the forest floor, so that she could nudge Raven's face with her snout.

Raven reached up to lightly scratch behind one of her ears. "We'll be okay, girl," she whispered, gently.

There was a faint whirr as the only machine in the area that was working shifted on his four, spider-like limbs, metal claws digging into the earth. Titan's eyes, the only features his body had, started to glow with a faint hum of power. "Master," came a deep, mechanical-sounding voice that resonated through Raven's mind, "I still do not understand your habit of stating possible outcomes of uncertain situations with certainty."

Raven snapped her gaze toward her metagross and gave Titan her best glare. He continued to stare back with no expression, and she soon gave up the attempt to have a staring contest with something that didn't need to blink and just turned her attention back to stroking and scratching Belladonna's ears. "It's called being comforting," she said simply, and then added quietly to Belladonna, "And we will be okay."

A frustrated whine, with an echoing quality, emerged nearby, and she looked past Belladonna and Titan to watch the floating form of what looked like a chandelier with eyes dart around, the flickering light of his numerous purple flames casting eerie shadows on the plant life around him. Raven frowned and sighed, noting the small size of said flames. "Grimm, patience. Don't burn the whole forest down."

He whirled in the air to face her and whined again. "I know you're hungry," she snapped in reply. "Sit and wait until the others get back." It was difficult for something without proper facial features beyond eyes to pout, but Grimm managed somehow. Raven just rolled her eyes at him.

And then she froze. Belladonna flicked an ear and rose to her full height as a growl rumbled in her chest. Titan's joints whirred as he pivoted, eyes aglow. Grimm's flames rose in height in anticipation.

Howls. Long, mournful, one leading into another as they echoed through the woods. Raven frowned as she tried to place the sound.

Mightyena? Or houndoom, maybe?

Eyes started to appear in the shadows, glowing green. Raven instinctively looked behind her, past the tree she was leaning against, and wasn't surprised to find the gleaming pairs of lights gathering there as well. She took a step back and felt Belladonna grip her arm protectively in her claws as her growl rose in volume.

A few of the creatures stepped into view, and Raven got a good look at them. They were indeed canine in shape, but looked to be made of various pieces of wood, held in place by unseen power. Sap dripped from their jaws like saliva as they advanced.

"Titan," Raven said quietly, but calmly, as more and more of the wolves emerged, "Are they susceptible?"

A reply came in the form of one of the wolves being yanked into the air, surrounded by a blue aura. It looked confused and tried to wriggle free. Then the various branches that made up its body were ripped apart and flung out in every direction. Now projectiles, they slammed into nearby wolves with enough force to knock them apart as well.

"Yes."

There were plenty more, however, and this attack just seemed to anger them as they snarled and lunged toward Raven and her pokemon. Belladonna bellowed and charged forward to grab one and grasp the thick branch that made up its neck in her jaws. She crunched down, the wood splitering effortlessly, and then threw what was left aside.

Titan snatched up another wolf in his telekinesis to tear it apart, but one darted past the bloodless carnage and leaped at one of his limbs. Its inferior fangs could do nothing to his metal hide, and he paused to grasp it in the claws of another limb and yank it off. He then used the previous limb to smash its head.

Ghostly energy coiled around Grimm's arms and formed a dark, pulsing energy orb in front of him. He sent it hurtling through the air and straight through three wolves. As the energy dissipated, he formed another.

Raven, intentionally standing in the eye of the storm, watched her pokemon effortlessly take apart this unknown enemy. Wolves made of wood. Even if she were able to access its databases, she knew there was no such thing in her pokedex. They did seem a bit foolish, though, rushing straight into their destruction.

Or so Raven thought, until a few of the chunks of wood by her feet started to glow green. They rapidly reformed into a wolf that immediately tackled her to the ground. Bark-coated fangs sank into the vulnerable flesh of the arm she raised to shield herself. Claws left gashes in her other arm, face, and torso. Eyes glowed hungrily.

"Bella!" Belladonna whirled around to face Raven at the cry and roared. She lowered her head and raced toward the wolf to sink her long horn into its torso, and then jerked her head backward to send it soaring through the air. It slammed into a tree and broke apart again.

Belladonna reached down to help Raven up, which meant grabbing the small human in her foreclaws and pulling her to her feet. Raven held her bitten arm close to her chest, but otherwise ignored her injuries as she shouted, "Grimm, Flame Burst! Burn them!"

Grimm cackled like Raven had just declared it his birthday. His flames doubled in height and swirled together into a massive fireball, which went flying straight at some newly-reformed wolves. It burst like an explosive on impact, consuming its victim instantly and sending embers showering down on the others.

Shrieking, agonized howls told Raven that this strategy was a much more effective one. A smirk twitched at her lips as those wolves not on fire went scrambling back into the woods. Those still burning ran around in a terrified frenzy, and Grimm took it upon himself to finish them off with some well-placed blasts of flame.

When all was still again, Raven carefully pulled away from Belladonna and walked over to the charred wood and ashes. She glanced to one side briefly as Grimm floated up beside her, then back at the remains of their attackers. Raven clutched her bleeding arm silently, then spoke four simple, cold words.

"Make sure they're dead."

She turned her back as Grimm reduced what little was left to more ashes, and walked slowly to the place she'd been standing before the battle had started. She sank down to sit among the roots of the tree, then carefully pulled the shredded remains of her black T-shirt off to wrap the dark fabric around her bitten arm.

Titan's deep voice flowed into her mind as she did so. "Master, perhaps you should properly treat and bind your wounds."

Raven's eyes flicked in his direction, but she otherwise didn't move as she replied, "I'll be fine. Angelica knows Heal Pulse. I'll get her to patch me up when she comes back."

Like Grimm's uncanny ability to pout without the proper facial features, Titan had mastered a similar skill to give a disapproving frown. "Master, I believe you are neglecting the risk of infection if your wounds are not properly cleaned."

Raven's teeth clenched slightly, and she inhaled and exhaled slowly. "Bella can wash them with Aqua Tail. Can't you, girl?" Belladonna perked up and swished her tail, and water droplets formed and swirled around it.

Titan looked no less disapproving. "Master, there are proper disinfectant and bandages in your--"

"I know that!" Raven snapped, jerking forward in a way that sent pain jolting through her torso from the scratches. The water Belladonna had been conjuring splashed to the ground as she ducked her head down and pinned her ears back at the sharp tone. Raven sank back and leaned against the tree trunk. "I'll be fine," she insisted, quietly.

Belladonna lowered herself right to the ground in a four-legged stance and gently nudged Raven's cheek with her muzzle. She gently scratched behind her nidoqueen's ear. "It's okay, girl. I've had worse..." She looked down, at the numerous scars from slashes, stabs and burns that littered her pale skin and intertwined with the fresh injures. "Remember?"

Belladonna just whimpered, but Titan made no more comments, leaving Raven to shut her eyes and lean her head back as she tried to ignore the constant stinging of the scratches. She breathed slowly, not too deeply, and a haze encroached on her senses, promising a restful sleep.

No!

Raven sucked in a sharp breath and forced her eyes back open. She stared up at the gnarled branches of the tree as she worked to calm her breathing again.

Anything that ever promised Raven restful sleep was lying through its teeth.

***

Twilight Sparkle's hooves hit the ground a little harder with each step than they normally did as she trotted away from Fluttershy's cottage, a frown set in her muzzle. Her saddlebags were heavy with books, weighing her down, but that wasn't what was lowering her mood.

"It's not like her to just not be there..." she mumbled to herself as she continued along the path back to Ponyville. She glanced at her loaded saddlebags. "Though maybe it's for the best. I can drop these off and come back..."

Twilight suddenly found a shadow looming over her, and she tilted her head back to look at the single cloud hanging in the midst of an otherwise clear day. And lounging on her back, forelegs behind her head and rainbow-coloured mane and tail draping over the edge of the fluffy cloud, was a familiar pegasus.

Twilight sighed and shook her head a little, then a took a few steps with the intention of just leaving her friend to her nap. She then paused and looked back in the direction of the cottage she'd recently left. "Hey, Rainbow Dash!" she called up at the cloud.

Rainbow Dash stirred. She rolled over, blinking sleep from her eyes as she peered down at the ground. "Hey Twilight. What's up?"

"Have you seen Fluttershy recently?" Twilight asked, figuring she'd just get right to the point. "She borrowed a book from me a couple of weeks ago about exotic animals, but when I went to her cottage to get it she wasn't there." Angel, of course, had been little help in informing her where Fluttershy had gone, not being able to speak. Though sometimes Twilight wondered if Fluttershy's rabbit friend would be any more helpful to anyone even if he could.

Rainbow Dash blinked and paused to think for a second. "Hmm...Yeah, she said something earlier about going to visit some bear. Had a bunch of fish in her saddlebags."

Twilight stepped back a little, so she didn't have to tilt her head back quite so far to make eye contact. "Do you know how long ago she left?"

There was another pause. "How long have I been asleep?"

One of Twilight's hooves wanted very much to plant itself in her own face at that reply, but she resisted as Rainbow Dash looked at the position of the sun and spoke again. "What, you don't think she's in trouble, do you? I mean, this is Fluttershy. Tamed a Manticore, looked a dragon in the eye and scolded it, gave a cockatrice the stare Fluttershy."

Twilight frowned a little, but she had to admit that Rainbow Dash was right. She was still just one pony, though. She was about to voice this when Rainbow Dash suddenly perked up and stared off in the distance. "What's that?"

"What's wha--? Rainbow!" There was a blur of colour as the cloud vanished and Twilight was left standing there as her much speedier friend went racing off.

Back in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage.

Twilight took off at a gallop, but it turned out that Rainbow Dash hadn't flown too far. She was hovering in the air to one side of the path, pointing her front hoof at a very large bird that had a bright red apple in its talons. "Don't play dumb! I saw you. You were flying away from the orchard, you little--"

"What are you doing?" Twilight looked from her friend to the bird, and she stared at it for a few moments. It was huge, most of its feathers jet black with white breast feathers and a hint of red on its inner wings and tail, and had a long, sharp-looking beak and talons.

"Catching this thief," she proclaimed, earning a narrow-eyed glare and sharp caw from the bird. She jerked her hoof forward again. "Probably stole this hat, t--Ow!" The moment her hoof touched the black 'hat' on the bird's head, it pecked her sharply on the end of her snout and cawed loudly before swooping down and landing.

"I'm pretty sure that's not a hat," Twilight commented. "It looks like a crest." The bird, still gripping the apple tightly in one foot, reached up a wing to fix said crest and confirm her theory. "I've never seen this kind of bird before. I'm not sure what it even is," she added, trotting a few step toward the bird. It glanced at her, but made no move to peck her or flee. She looked around, in search of some sort of flock, but the area was absent of anything but them.

Rainbow Dash huffed as she rubbed her sore muzzle with her hoof. "Crest shmest," she said as she darted over to land in front of the bird. "It's still stealing apples. We can't let a bunch of weird birds steal everything in the east orchard under Applejack's nose!"

She lunged at the bird, and it hopped backward and took off with a furious flapping and cawing. "After it!" Rainbow Dash shouted, and Twilight groaned a little as she ran after them, noticing that the bird was making a beeline for the river and the Everfree Forest beyond.

Luckily, it wasn't all that fast, and Rainbow Dash darted in front of it before it could cross the river. "Alright, mister, enough games. Hand over the apple and no one gets hurt!"

The bird hovered there for a moment, and looked down at the apple it was holding. When it looked back up, however, its eyes were glowing bright white, a glow that soon consumed its wings as well. Twilight froze mid-gallop, her mouth falling open in shock.

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened in surprise and she instinctively ducked in the air when the massive bird lunged for her. She heard a distinct slicing sound and saw a few multi-coloured hairs fall past her field of vision as it rocketed over her head. She whirled around to see it again racing toward the forest, but before she could give chase again, the glow faded and the bird turned solid black instead, then vanished entirely.

Rainbow Dash looked down at Twilight Sparkle. "What the hay?"

***

There was suddenly a rustling of foliage nearby Raven and her pokemon's resting spot. Belladonna twitched an ear, then moved to an upright stance, muscles tense. Grimm floated closer to both females, flames flickering brightly in preparation for making another fireball.

Titan, however, remained where he was. "Julie," he informed them simply, and, indeed, a sleek, black shape of a maned lioness soon emerged from the bushes, the star-shaped tip to her tail twitching slightly. Belladonna relaxed at the sight of the luxray, and Grimm started to float away.

However, something followed Julie into the open a moment later, and then stopped in its tracks. It was small and was equine in shape with yellow fur, a bit like a ponyta. Unlike a ponyta, however, it didn't have fire for a mane and tail, in its place having long, flowing, pink hair. Its tail nearly brushed against the ground and its mane draped over one eye.

"Oh my, you're hurt!" Also, it could talk. She could talk, rather, as that was unmistakably a feminine voice. She trotted straight toward Raven, showing no sign of noticing the way Belladonna tensed at her approach. Julie merely laid down, wearing a distinct frown and her tail continuing to twitch, but not at all attempting to stop the little equine.

Raven shifted, frowning, as the stranger started looking at her scratches and her fabric-wrapped arm. "What happened to you?" the fussing creature asked.

"Wolves," she grunted, earning a gasp from the talking equine. It was around then that Raven noticed that the stranger, whom she was very tempted to swat away, had feathered wings folded at her sides the same colour as her fur, and what looked like a tattoo of three pink butterflies on her rump.

"Oh my, you can talk? And timberwolves did that to you? You poor poor baby..."

"There are proper disinfectant and bandages in her bag," Titan piped up, and his deep voice made the winged mare jump a little and look up at the metal giant. She looked from Titan, to Belladonna, to Grimm, to Julie, back to Raven, and then to the large bag laying nearby.

She then trotted right over to the bag, and at this point Raven didn't even bother protesting. "O-oh, thank you...Mr...?"

"His name's Titan," Raven said quickly, not bothering to not sound irritated. "The one with the spikes is Belladonna, the floating one's Grimm, and you've met Julie. I'm Raven. Who are you?"

Her newly self-appointed nurse apparently didn't notice the annoyance with her presence as she pulled the first aid kit out of Raven's bag with her mouth and opened it. "I'm Fluttershy," she said softly, in the same gentle voice she'd been saying everything. "Now let's get you all fixed up." She pulled out the bottle of disinfectant and a roll of bandages, and Raven was starting to seriously wonder how a creature without hands or any sign of telekinesis was going to tend to her wounds.

Apparently, very well. Fluttershy moved like someone well-versed in treating injuries, using her mouth and wings in tandem to clean the claw and tooth wounds and bind them just tightly enough. Raven cooperated and moved as best she could to make it easier, and soon Fluttershy was tucking the first aid kit back where it had been and smiling. "There. Is that better?"

Raven glanced away. "...Yeah," she admitted in a mumble, then added after a moment, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Fluttershy looked very happy with herself, from Raven's point of view, but not smug. More just happy she had been able to help; it wasn't something Raven was used to seeing. Then her expression shifted to curious, then unsure as she glanced away and started to gently scrape one of her front hooves against the ground. "I was wondering...That is, i-if you don't mind my asking...What exactly are all of you? I've never seen anything like you in the forest before."

Raven frowned at that. "I could ask you the same thing," she said. "I've never seen anything like you anywhere I've been, either."

Fluttershy appeared perplexed. "You've never seen a pegasus before? Oh my, you must be from somewhere very far away, then."

"That's the impression I'm getting, yes," Raven replied in deadpan, and she sighed. Fluttershy was still looking at her, possibly still expecting an answer to her question, but Raven asked one of her own instead. "Why were you following Julie?"

That earned a blush, and Fluttershy looked from the lounging luxray in question and back to Raven. "Oh, well, you see, I was delivering some fish to this nice bear today. He hurt his paw recently and was having trouble catching fish on his own. And, um, well, when I was on my way back, I found your kitty. Julie. I think she could still smell the fish. I noticed she was hungry, and offered to take her to my cottage and get her something to eat, but she led me here instead..."

Julie snorted a little and gave Raven a long-suffering look, the kind of look that said 'I tried to scare it off and it followed me.' Her mouth twitched just a little at that, which made Julie look away again. Something was more important than teasing her 'kitty,' however. "You have a cottage?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Yes, I do. It's not far. Did you want to come? I'm sure we can make room for all of you..." She looked around at everyone again, with a small, hopeful smile.

Raven contemplated this for a moment. "Better than sitting here waiting for more wolves to get us...Even if Grimm can take care of them pretty well." She glanced up at Grimm, who bowed dramatically mid-air and cackled. Fluttershy looked up as well, but shuffled in a way that looked a bit uncomfortable. "But this isn't all of us. I sent two more of my friends out scouting and they haven't come back yet."

Fluttershy tilted her head a little. "Oh? What do they look like?"

Raven paused, debating answering, then just shrugged a little and said, "Well, Lenore's a large, black bird with plumage that makes it look like she's wearing a fedora and Angelica's...well, she's four-legged with a long neck and a leaf growing on her head and a ring of them around her neck."

She raised her hand when she said 'long neck' to emphasize Angelica's height, and Fluttershy's eyes followed it, looking enthralled at the description. "When do you think they'll be back?" she asked.

Raven shrugged. "I don't know. You mind waiting?"

Fluttershy looked up at Titan for a moment, then nodded. "You'll need food and rest to help you heal from those injuries. I'll wait with you for your friends, and then we can all go back to my cottage. "

Raven snorted a little as she leaned back her head. Rest. If only Fluttershy knew what an impossibility that really was. Right now, though, Raven was done with chatting. She'd never liked small talk, as sweet as this little pegasus was.

So very nearly impossibly sweet, yet clearly painfully genuine. It was strange. Not a bad strange, she supposed, though it did completely crush any faint thought in her mind that this could possibly be some kind of dream.

Raven didn't get good dreams.

***

Twilight was pacing frustrated circles around her library, numerous books floating around her as she plucked them from the shelves with her magic. One was open in front of her nose, and she let out a noise of frustration as she hurled it aside to join a growing pile. "Nothing in this one either!" She flipped through another, then another, then another, and sent them all flying. "There's nothing in any of these books about that bird we saw."

Rainbow Dash leaned against the wall with a deadpan expression, watching Twilight's frantic search. "What's the big deal? It's from the Everfree Forest, right? That place has all kinds of weird stuff in it. Remember the parasprites? What matters is that we kick that bird's feathered flank."

Twilight stopped in her tracks, and the magic aura around her horn faded. "The parasprites...Of course!" She whirled around to face Rainbow Dash. "Pinkie Pie! Maybe she knows what that bird was."

Rainbow Dash blinked in bewilderment as Twilight trotted out the door, and she found herself following. "Wait a second. You're asking Pinkie for information?"

Twilight just kept trotting down the path. "You said it yourself. No one knew about the parasprites when they came out of the Everfree Forest. Except for Pinkie Pie." She looked back at Rainbow Dash. "Besides, do you have any better ideas?"

"Yeah, I do. Going back to that forest and feeding that bird his hat!"

"Crest."

"Whatever!"

Twilight rolled her eyes. For all her protests, she'd noticed that Rainbow Dash was still following her despite it. The owner of Sofas and Quills offered the pair a wave and cheerful hello as they trotted past, but Twilight barely noticed. "Rainbow, that bird used magic to attack you. It cast some kind of spell to turn its wings into blades, and then it cast another to vanish like that."

Rainbow Dash took off with a couple of wing flaps and hovered beside Twilight. "Hey, you don't have to tell me that. I'm the one with the unwanted mane cut, remember?" She shook her head to make obvious the small section of her mane that now ended with a flat, slightly diagonal edge, in sharp contrast to the rest of it.

"Exactly." Twilight kept up her brisk pace, ignoring the giggling young fillies who were bounding around the fountain in a game of tag. Rainbow Dash, instead, gave a little mid-air loop and perched on top of the fountain briefly, to the cheering of the foals, before she hopped down and followed her friend on hoof again. "We have no idea what it's capable of. What if it has other spells we don't know about?"

Rainbow Dash scoffed, but didn't get a chance to reply when a loud shriek erupted from the direction of Sugarcube Corner. Both mares looked at each other and immediately put on a burst of speed.

Rainbow Dash, as usual, got there first, and burst in the front door. "Pinkie!"

Another shriek rang out, but as Twilight pushed open the door as well, they now saw the source. That source being an earth pony with a pink and purple mane and tail bouncing up and down in gleeful circles, very similarly to a way Pinkie Pie herself often did, with a huge grin on her face. "I won, I won, I won! I won the contest!"

Laying sprawled out on the floor was a mint green unicorn with colourful frosting all over her face and holding a half-eaten cupcake with her hoof. "How did you pack away that many...?" Her unoccupied front hoof went to her face and she opened her mouth to prod at her tongue. "I thin' my tongue jus' wen' numb from all th' sugar."

"And the winner is Bon Bon!" came a cheer as Pinkie Pie momentarily held one of the earth pony's forelegs in the air, then trotted over to help the unicorn back to her hooves. "You did really well, Lyra! I've never seen anyone eat as many as either of you."

It was then that she acknowledged Rainbow Dash and Twilight standing in the doorway and waved at them. "Hi Twilight! Hi Dashie! Are you here for a cupcake eating contest, too? Too bad you missed this last one. It was amazing."

"Actually, Pinkie Pie," Twilight said, trotting past Lyra and Bon Bon as the latter finally calmed down. "We wanted to talk to you about something."

Pinkie Pie just bounced on the front of her hooves eagerly. "I like talking! What do you wanna talk about?"

"Well, Rainbow Dash and I saw this bird out near the Everfree Forest..."

***

"You really don't need to eat at all?"

"I do not. I am able to derive beneficial effects from certain varieties of food, but I do not require it to remain functional."

Raven flicked her eyes in the direction of Fluttershy and Titan and sighed faintly, her hand idly scratching at Belladonna's ears, who laying next to her in a half-doze. Even if she wasn't inclined to engage in small talk herself, it turned out that forcing herself to listen to it was a good way to distract herself enough that she didn't sleep.

It also turned out that, when Fluttershy said she wanted to know absolutely everything, she wasn't kidding. And since Raven wasn't responding and 'needed her rest,' she'd been bombarding Titan with questions instead for Arceus only knew how long. And Titan, being a mechanical creature incapable of boredom, was answering every single question.

Every. Single. Question.

"Do all...'steel types' not need to eat?"

"Some do require it. Some require larger amounts of food than typical species of their size to maintain the quality of their bodies' metal. Other steel types may derive their nutrition from eating different varieties of metal directly."

It was pokemon biology class all over again.

Raven tuned out the next few questions and answers as she looked out at Julie and Grimm patrolling the edges of their little 'territory' on the lookout for threats. There had been no sign of the timberwolves returning, which could either mean that the brutal burning of their pack members had frightened them into staying away from the area, or that they were biding their time for revenge.

Hopefully, Raven and her team would be out of here before they had a chance to find out which it was. The longer it took, the more she wondered if Lenore and Angelica had run into something equally dangerous.

She tuned back into the ongoing conversation, just in time to hear the words, "...Start out that way?"

"They do not. Scyther are categorized as bug type and flying type until the metal coat is applied to trigger the metamorphosis into scizor. The flying type designation is then replaced by steel type designation."

Raven wondered how much of this Fluttershy was absorbing, but she supposed she couldn't fault her enthusiasm for the topic. She wished she'd been so eager to learn about all the little details when she'd first started out, rather than racing out into the world with the belief that she'd be able to take on the world with sheer force of personality.

Raven looked down at what of her old scars she could see with Fluttershy's bandaging job. She'd been so, so stupid.

"Combining known species in regions Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova, there are seventy-three individual varieties of flying types, in forty-three evolution families. Of them, twenty-four are normal types, twelve are bug types, seven are water types, five are psychic types, four are dark types, four are grass types, three are dragon types, three are poison types, three are rock types, two are ghost types, two are ground types, one is electric type, one is fire type, one is ice type, and one is steel type."

Who needed a pokedex when you had a metagross? She'd missed the question that had triggered all of that, but she felt she could guess. Still, Raven found herself piping up, "You left out the Legendary pokemon."

Immediately, she found attention on her as Fluttershy tore her eyes away from Titan where she was laying in the grass and looked over. "Legendary pokemon?"

Titan looked over as well. "Legendary categorization regarding types are theory, master. They have not been confirmed by in-depth examination of the pokemon in question."

Raven just gave him a deadpan stare, slowly arching a brow. "Are you honestly trying to debate whether the Legendary birds are flying types with me?" She shifted her more heavily-bandaged arm, where a bit of her old burn scarring still showed through.

Titan was silent, and there was a faint hum of power before he spoke again. "Adding in known Legendary pokemon from the five regions stated, there are eighty-two flying types, in fifty-two evolution families. Of them, twenty-four are normal types, twelve are bug types, seven are water types, six are psychic types..."

And right there, Raven stopped paying attention and just leaned her head back against the tree again, wondering why in the world she chose to encourage him. Oh well, what was done was done, and if this had gone on long enough, Legendaries would have no doubt come up in conversation on their own. Fluttershy was certainly covering nearly everything else in her questioning.

That was fated to be the last of the questions for the time being, however. Fluttershy suddenly gave a frightened squeak and flattened herself against the ground with her forelegs over her head as a dark blur flew over her and landed in front of Raven. Belladonna's head snapped up and Julie and Grimm turned to look, but they all relaxed when they saw who it was.

A little smile twitched at Raven's mouth as she saw her honchkrow standing there with one foot extended, holding her prize. "An apple? Good find, Lenore." Raven reached out to take it from Lenore's talons, then handed it to Belladonna, who shoved it into her mouth whole, core and all, and munched on it happily.

Fluttershy had recovered by this point, and she trotted over. "Oh, you're Lenore. It's nice to meet you. I'm Fluttershy." Lenore eyed the approaching pegasus warily, then looked at Raven. Then she looked at Raven's numerous bandages.

She shrugged. "We were attacked by some strange wolves earlier. Fluttershy patched me up."

Lenore's body language immediately shifted upon hearing that, and she gave a cheerful squawk and held out her wing. Fluttershy smiled and raised her leg for a handless handshake that was surprisingly lacking in awkwardness. Lenore then took off to land on one of the thicker, lower branches of the tree Raven was resting against and settle down there.

"She's technically nocturnal," Raven explained for Fluttershy's benefit, just in case that hadn't been in a part of Titan's tidal wave of information that she'd tuned out. Then she looked up and asked, "Hey, you didn't happen to see Angelica out the--"

A chirping, "Bay bay!" and loud trampling of plant life answered that one, as her bayleef burst through the bushes in a clumsy gallop. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Raven, however, and let out a long whine as she lumbered over and peered at her.

Raven just sighed. "I'll be fine," she said, then gently reached up and turned the large head in front of her to one side to make her look elsewhere. "Angelica, this is Fluttershy."

Angelica immediately perked up and toddled over to lean down and sniff at Fluttershy, which earned a soft giggle. "Hi Angelica." She looked around at all the pokemon, then back at Raven. "This means all of your friends are back now, right?"

Raven nodded. "Yeah..." She looked up at the branches. "Better look alive, Lenore. We have a place to stay, now." She then shifted, trying to get up, when she was suddenly surrounded by a soft glow and lifted into the air. She floated over and was gently placed on top of Titan, who then pulled all four of his legs up to let them point outward and hovered where he'd once been standing.

Fluttershy looked awestruck. "Oh my, I didn't know he could do that."

Raven smirked a little and lightly patted the metal surface she was seated on. "Yeah, he's pretty handy like that. So...lead the way."

Fluttershy nodded and started to trot away. "It's just this way. It's not far outside the forest at all."

Lenore, with a grand sigh, took off from the branch and landed on Titan next to Raven, where she stayed as he started to follow Fluttershy. Raven idly reached over to stroke Lenore's breast feathers as Julie, Grimm, Angelica, and Belladonna all joined them with varying speeds and levels of enthusiasm. Her bag, gripped in Titan's telekinesis, floated along behind them.

They had barely traveled any distance before a chill started to take root in Raven's spine, however. Both her hands found the metal to either side of her; they started laying flat, palm down, and then she slowly curled her fingers, pressed against the cold surface to the point that she could faintly hear her nails scratching against it, until they were fists. A feeling of dread made her empty stomach lurch and seemed to coil up her throat and stay there, almost making it hard to breathe.

Raven swallowed, staring straight ahead, and forced herself to ignore the feeling and will it away. She was a lost trainer, now. Cut off from the network. Off the radar. Far, far away from anything she had ever known.

She didn't need to dread anything anymore. She was free, now.