Of Magic and Flame

It was early morning when I woke up. I hadn't slept too well, and from the looks of it, neither had Shellshocker or Bruteroot. Slowly, I turned over in the quilt and attempted to fall back asleep. I tossed and turned for almost an hour before giving up and stuffing my face in the pillow. I could hear mumbling from my friends and a clinking coming from upstairs.

having nothing else to do, I made the trek up. When I tried to stand, the whole tail thing had me a little unbalanced at first. It will take some time to get used to my current... situation. Although, my tail hasn't caught anything on fire yet. So I have that going for me, which is nice. When I arrived at the top of the stairs, I trudged over to the source of the clinking. When I neared the origin, I began to smell cinnamon and oatmeal. I walked towards it and found myself in the kitchen. Spike and Twilight were sitting at the table eating cereal and oatmeal.

"Mornin'." Spike said tiredly. Twilight turned around when she heard him speak up.

"Oh, please, help yourself. Your friends can have some too when they get up. Spike made plenty for everypony." Spike was swelling with pride as she mentioned him. I grabbed some sort of nut based cornflake cereal, and some cinnamon oatmeal, then I made my way to an empty seat, careful not to spill anything when I sat down.

While we were eating, Spike asked, "So yesterday, you said you were a salamander, and that your friends were a turtle and a dinosaur?"

I swallowed my food and replied, "Well, not exactly. See, we are, I guess, Pokémon. I am a charmander, a fire type. Shellshocker, the turtle, is a squirtle. He is a water type. And Bruteroot is a bulbasaur, a grass type."

Twilight seemed puzzled by this. "What are these types you're talking about? Is there some way to determine type. Is it genetic or magical?"

I sighed, having dealt with inexperienced trainers before on Earth, and began my usual speech with a few modifications. "In the Pokémon universe, there are 18 different types. These are normal, grass, fire, water, bug, poison, flying, rock, ground, fighting, electric, ice, dark, psychic, ghost, steel, dragon, and fairy. Pokémon can evolve and become new types based on the evolution. The type is based on the Pokémon and can change in some circumstances such as castform or kecleon.  Typically, though type only can change through evolution even though it usually is similar to its predecessor. Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, fire types such as myself are strong against grass types, but we are also weak against water types. Does that answer your question?"

"...against water types. Got it!" Twilight smiled as she looked up from her notebook. "I suppose that's enough for a while. Why don't you get Shellshocker and Bruteroot and I'll take you guys on a tour of Ponyville?"

I smiled at the suggestion. "Sounds great. They'll be right up."

"Let's go, let's go, let's go! Wake up you lazy bums!" They jumped out of bed at the sound of my yelling. "We got a tour today, so eat breakfast as quickly as you can. Let's go!"

They both scrambled out of bed and gave me a dirty look as they went upstairs. I followed, laughing. While I waited for my friends, I decided to glance through some of the books in the library. It was a surprisingly large collection for being housed inside of a tree. I was browsing through the mythology section when I came across a familiar symbol. It almost looked like a pokéball. The book was titled "The Art of Taming Elemental Beasts and Suggestions on How to Enhance Their Skills". Quite a lengthy title. As I was about to read it, a knock came from the door. Spike came over and opened it up, revealing a soft yellow pony with a pink mane. She spoke up very softly, almost I audibly. Especially from where I was standing across the room.

"Oh, um, hello Spike. I came to ask about those creatures I heard ponies talking about yesterday. Some of them were saying that they saw you walking with them, so you might know what happened."

Spike seemed confused for a second. "Creatures? Oh, you mean Blazewing and his friends. Yeah, they're still here actually. In fact, you can talk to Blazewing right now." Hearing my "cue" I walked over to the door to greet the pony. She gasped when she saw me, a small smile creeping onto her face.

"Oh my, what a cute little thing!" I glanced at her skeptically. " I've never seen such a creature before. Where did he come from?"

"I don't know. And who are you?" She jumped, obviously not expecting me to talk. "My name's Blazewing." I stuck my arm out for a shake.

She was quivering behind her mane now. "My... my name is ..."

"What was that?"

"My name is... is Flutter..."

Spike leaned over and whispered, "Her name's Fluttershy. She's a little shy around new ponies."

"You don't say?" I mumbled. She tentatively put her hoof in my claws and we shook. I smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, Fluttershy. If you want to meet Bruteroot and Shellshocker I can call them in for you."

"Oh, yes. That would be nice. And, if it's not too much trouble, could you tell me what kind of animal you are?"

"Yeah, sure. I am a charmander, and..." Bruteroot and Shellshocker walked in to the room, "they are a bulbasaur and a squirtle." I said pointing to each.

She seemed puzzled by this. "Where are you from? I've never heard of creatures like those before."

"We are from the planet Earth. The city we lived in was Roswell. Our species are from the Kanto region. It's kind of hard to explain the regions to other people."

Twilight interrupted us, saying, "Well, it looks like you're all ready. And you met Fluttershy, how nice. She's the local animal caretaker, so I figure if any of you have a problem, go to her." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Oh! We're running two minutes late! If we're going to get through all of Ponyville today, we have to leave now!"

She rushed us out the door and into the street. When ponies saw me, they began to veer their paths as far away as they could without changing directions completely. I could see the look of fear in their eyes when they saw me and my tail. I guess that it makes sense. Especially in a town that looks to be constructed mainly of wooden houses with thatch roofs.

As we began walking, I noticed Bruteroot was talking enthusiastically with Fluttershy about some sort of crested gecko or something. He always loved animals, especially his dogs. He always had a few back home and he absolutely adored the things. But, he loved animals of all kinds too. One time, he brought a hawk that he was nursing back to health to school. The hawk had some flu and a broken wing, and he was making sure it was getting back to full health. Sometimes, I would tease him and call him Nurse Joy.

I don't think he caught anything of what Twilight just said. Actually, neither did I. The only one who looked to be paying attention was Shellshocker. We were at the town hall and Twilight was explaining some historical significance involving diamonds and dogs and ancient ponies. We continued our tour until we heard a loud screech. It seemed to be coming from above, and almost sounded like a subsonic jet. Suddenly, a figure pounded the ground in front of us. It rose from the dust, revealing a rainbow hued mane and blue fur.

"Who're your new friends, Twi?" It asked.

Twilight, still recovering from shock, said, "Rainbow Dash! Don't do that, you almost scared the daylights out of me!" She sighed and began, "These are some creatures called pokémon from another world. This one's Bruteroot, and this is Shellshocker and here's Blazewing." We waved as she introduced each of us.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria! So, Blazewing, huh? I don't see any wings, otherwise I'd challenge you to a race. Too bad you can't fly." She said gloatingly.

I chuckled, "It'll make sense later. Just wait for a while, then I'll win that race."

"Think you can beat me? I'll have you know, I'm the only pony in Equestria to pull off a Sonic Rainboom, and I did it twice!"

"I don't know if I can beat you, but breaking the sound barrier isn't that hard. Where I came from, we did it on land at one point. So, once I get my wings, we'll race."

"You're on!" She said, smirking.