You, Me, Ponies, and Pokémon

by DJSkywalker

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Equestria Girls, Comedy, Pokémon, Crossover, Human, Sunset Shimmer, Main 6, Main 7 (EqG), Dazzlings, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 38118

Ash and Serena are two lovers that have been separated between the two Equestrias. Will they be reunited or will they forever be apart?

For over a thousand years, ponies and Pokémon have lived together in peace. And why? Because they were taught to coexist by two great humans. Ash and Serena, two lovers from a distant world, transported as people they didn't used to be. But their past no longer mattered, so long as they stayed together.

But when tragedy strikes and they are taken from each other in a cruel twist of fate, one waits while the other is in a constant race of survival. Centuries have passed and yet their love still burns and begs to be together once again.

With the help of some new friends and their partners, will those years of waiting finally end?

Additional tags: Spike, Discord, Flash Sentry, Trixie, Celestia, and Luna
Edited and assisted by Inazuma
A Displaced story.
Pokémon and MLP: FiM are under their own ownership and I claim no rights to them. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

Published 2015-06-17 04:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-08-22 19:35:29 UTC

Prologue

Prologue

‘Twas a bright, gorgeous day in the land of Equestria, home of the ponies. A happy country full of pegasi that flew high above in the clouds, unicorns trotting about in the cities below as they performed their various spells to make their lives easier and exciting, and the earth ponies in the farms and businesses that kept Equestria running behind the scenes. Of course ponies were not the only kind to inhabit this lush green landscape. Half eagle, half-lion griffons, bulky and imposing minotaurs, stubborn-to-the bone donkeys, dangerous and greedy dragons, friendly cattle, mysterious zebras, and even a sea serpent or two also called this place their home.

Yet even they did not entail the fullest of Equestria’s population. More abundant than anywhere else on the planet, creatures known as Pokémon roamed everywhere. In the air, flying types soared right along side the pegasi, many surpassing their abilities as well. Grass and bug types inhabited most forests and prairies, living out lives just as peaceful as any other creature alongside the normal types. Fire types were few and far between, usually found amongst the dragons that frequented volcanic hot spots. Poisons and ghosts were just as rarely found, exclusive to areas like the Everfree forest where they ruled without opposition from others.

Water types roamed and played in the many rivers and lakes of Equestria, being even more plentiful in the bordering oceans. Electric types were another rare sight, often hiding in caves and deep forests from the outside world, despite their usual friendliness. The mountainous regions were home to the rock and ground types, as well as the fighting who use the rough terrains as training grounds to keep in top shape. Psychics were a common sight in cities and towns, often as assistants to political figures and business owners. Steel types, another rare, could only be found near rich mineral mines, being very territorial and dangerous when provoked. The most obvious home of pokemon were the Frozen North and Crystal Empire, the only place in Equestria where one could come across ice types. They were bountiful in this region, being used to the presence of ponykind and the like.

But the oddest of them all were the dark and fairy types. Dark types were often looked upon legend and myth as terrible beasts, but no evidence could ever be substantiated against them. One would think they would call the Everfree forest home alongside the poison and ghost types, but actually they were more often seen alongside the grass types in the plains and prairies. They were just as peaceful and friendly, just much more cautious and defensive. The fairies were odd in the sense that they were a more recent discovery. Many different Pokémon were suddenly displaying these new traits as the new discovery grew and grew. The pure fairies were discovered upon the return of the Crystal Empire, allowing them to flow back into Equestria proper and be researched by professors and enthusiasts alike. This only proved there was so much more to learn about these wonderful creatures.

In the capital city of Equestria: Canterlot, home of the sister princesses who controlled the day and nights, however, is where our story truly begins. Where this beautiful day goes down in history as one of the strangest.

“I want to start our field trip here, in the world-famous Canterlot sculpture garden,” said a cheery, cerise pony as she walked into said garden. Several young foals followed after her, two colts and five fillies, all looking at the many statues that littered the grounds. Their teacher, Miss Cheerilee, pleasantly describe each statue as they passed. “That one over there represents ‘Friendship’.” She gestured to a statute of three young foals at play, three of her own young students bumping into each other in front of it. “All right, my little ponies, this one represents ‘Victory’.” This was a statue of pony standing tall while holding a flag that waved in the wind.

“How cool would it be to have that for a cutie mark?” an energetic, orange-furred and wild purple maned pegasus filly said in her tomboyish voice.

The yellow coated filly with deep red hair got a devilish smirk on her muzzle. “Cool, if you were actually victoryful at somethin’,” she said in a thick southern accent. Apple Bloom received a glare back from her pegasus friend.

“That’s not a word!” squeaked a pretty unicorn filly next to them. Her grey-white coat and purple-pink swirled mane certainly screamed the idea of cute.

“What are you, a dictionary?” the pegasus filly, Scootaloo, questioned with a look of confusion at Sweetie Belle.

“Girls!” Cheerilee interrupted their little feud before pointing at yet another statue. This one was the strangest of them all. “Now this is a really interesting statue. What can you tell me about it?”

“It’s got a pidgeotto claw!” Apple Bloom replied.

“And a pyroar paw!” Scootaloo said, getting in front of Bloom.

“And an ekans tail!” Sweetie cheered, jumping in front of them both.

“This creature is called a draconequus. He has the head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things. What do you suppose he represents?”

Cheerilee would come to regret asking those three that question. Each of them had a differing opinion on what the creature was. From confusion, to evil, to just simple chaos. The three instantly began fighting, attacking and jumping on each other to prove who was right.

Finally, the teacher had had enough. “Actually, in a way, you’re all right. This statue represents "Discord", which means a lack of harmony between ponies. In fact, you three have demonstrated discord so well that you're each going to write me an essay explaining it.” The three foals hung their heads in shame as the other children laughed at their punishment, but Cheerilee didn’t let it last as they moved further into the statue garden.

…

Roughly an hour later, Cheerilee was finally finishing up her tour of the gardens, knowing that the very last statue would surely get her class excited. “Now class,” she said, stopping in front of the said figure. “This is the last of statues before we move into Canterlot Castle for lunch with the princess.” Several foals cheered at that, but she quickly calmed them down. “Can anypony tell me what this is a statue of?”

The foals looked up at the polished statue. It was clearly well taken care of, meaning it had to be of some importance. It stood tall on two legs that appeared to be covered in some sort of fabric. Sweetie Belle inwardly guessed it was meant to be denim jeans. The statue also had shoes carved instead of feet, meaning special care was put into its making. It’s torso appeared to wearing vest shirt over another t-shirt based on the carved outlines. One arm was posed to its side, fingerless-gloved hand on its hip. The other, similarly covered extended up to hat on its spiky haired head, pulling the bill over its face, covering it in shadow.

“A mankey?” Scootaloo asked.

“No way. Ain’t no tail. Gotta be a primape of sorts,” Apple Bloom guessed.

“Is it a monster‽” Sweetie asked, shaking a little at the thought.

“On the contrary, Sweetie, this is a statue to one of history’s greatest Pokémon trainers.” She smiled in victory as her class’ collective jaws dropped.

“Hold on,” the pink dem...er… filly named Diamond Tiara said as she trotted up. “You can’t honestly expect us to believe that...thing was a Pokémon trainer?”

“Yeah, like as if!” added in Diamond’s grey coated lackey, Silver Spoon.

“Oh, but he was more than a simple trainer, colts and fillies,” Cheerilee said, changing her tone to be one of awe-inducement. “This statue is to the legendary master, Red.”

“RED‽” everypony shouted.

“But Ah thought Red was a pony‽” Apple Bloom questioned in disbelief.

“Oh no, my little ponies. Red was a creature never before seen on Equestria. Back then, over a thousand years ago or so, he taught our ancestors the secret skills to becoming friends with the Pokémon of our home and even created what became the Pokémon league. Some of our ancients even thought he was a form of Pokémon as well. Fun fact: he thought the same of us initially, according to some records.”

“Well, if wasn’t a pony, then what was he?” Scootaloo asked curiously.

“Good question, Scootaloo. Red was described as a human, possibly a being from beyond the stars.” The class ‘oohed’ at that.

“What happened to him?” asked Sweetie.

“That’s where things get blurry. You see, Red had a special somepony back then that mysteriously disappeared. Legends say that he stayed in one spot, looking out into the distant horizon, praying for his love to return. They say he stood there for days on end, never moving, until one day… he had turned completely to stone.”

“That’s possible‽” Sweetie nearly cried.

Cheerilee giggled. “Of course not, Sweetie. It’s only a legend. Now come along, we have a lunch date to keep.” The foals cheered and talked as they trotted out of the gardens, leaving the statues to their peace.

Or not as a certain former statue slithered over to the legendary Pokémon trainer. The chaotic creature floated up behind the stone human with a dark chuckle.

“So,” Discord said with a menacing tone, “this is what became of the great Ash Ketchum. Another pidgey pedestal in Celestia’s keep.” He chortled a little.

He disappeared and reappeared in front of ‘Ash’ in a bright white flash. “I would think you’d deserve some pay back old friend. Wouldn’t you?” Discord wrapped his serpentine body around the statue, smiling wickedly. “Let’s set you free and together, we can rule as father and son!” A thought then came to the draconequus. “Oh wait… we’re not related.” He shrugged. “Point still stands, lad.”

He flashed into a standing position again. “Join me, Ashy-boy. You can get back at the Sisters for freezing you here unfairly.”

There was only silence.

Discord frowned deeply. “I know quite well you can here me in there! I’ve been hearing every word for centuries!”

Only the sound of the whistling wind greeted his ears.

“ANSWER ME, KETCHUM!!” Discord roared.

It was nearly quiet on the light breeze, but Discord heard it quite clearly, echoing into his mind. A voice of emptiness, very much unlike the sound he was used to hearing from his rival.

'Go away, Discord… it’s not time, yet.'

The draconequus blinked, backing away slightly. He was deeply tempted to keep badgering Ash, but… something deep in his supposedly non-existent heart told him not to. He slowly floated away from his former battle partner, only giving the statue one last glance back. His mouth opened to say something, only to have it die on his lips and he blinked away with white light.

Once again, silence reigned in the gardens.

'...But it will be soon…'

'Faster,' she thought to herself, running as quickly as her legs could take her. Her legs ached from the hours of running she had done without break.

But she couldn’t stop. Not with them right on her tail.

She didn’t know how they found her this time. She thought for sure they had lost her scent, but still they found her. Only took five years this time. They were getting better, and that was most definitely a problem.

Quickly she ducked behind a tree, panting heavily as footsteps ran past her at the same rate she had been going. She inwardly thanked her luck on that one. And thanked whatever deity watching over her for the small break.

Only a moment later she cursed that same deity as she heard the sound she dreaded in nightmares. Some would say the sound was melodious, appealing. Many more would say it was overwhelmingly enticing.

For Serena, it was the sound that her death was encroaching once again. She took off in a sprint, quickly running through the dense forest.

'Faster!' she inwardly screamed at herself, quickening her pace as much as she could. It always happened this way. Always. No matter what, Serena always had to be on guard for the day that they would come for her once again. She never lost them for too long, fifty years had been the longest time stretch in recent memory.

An inner sense of danger rang through her mind, bringing her back to reality. Just in time to stop herself from running right off a cliff. Serena panted hard as she looked at the nearly ten story drop to a jagged rock floor below. She looked out into the distance, seeing the expansive desert she was searching for.

“Ah, there you are,” a voice said behind her.

Serena froze stiff. She knew that demeaning, cocky tone. Her ears had become accustomed to being bashed by it over the many years she had been running. Slowly, she turned to see her pursuers. Just as every time before, she saw three young women sneering at her. On the left was a rude looking girl with long purple, green-striped hair tied up in twin pigtails. Beside her stood another, clueless woman who had long turquoise hair in a ponytail with dark blue highlights. The most outrageous of them was the the one in the middle with large, poofy orange hair with bright yellow streaks. All three wore what could be described as punk-rock outfits, spikes and studs included.

“It’s been a complete pain in finding you, ya know,” the pigtailed one, Aria Blaze, said in a snide tone. She never did have much of a personality.

Serena felt the need to smirk. “Well, one usually does prefer living to dying by a bunch of rock-star wannabes.”

“What did you say‽” Aria growled at her.

“Like yeah!” the pony-tail said, her name being Sonata Dusk. “We’re totally punk-rock wannabes, duh!” Aria slapped her hard upside the head. “Ow! What did you do that for?”

Their leader shook with anger before exploding on them. “QUIET BOTH OF YOU!” Adagio Dazzle screamed. She growled before turning back to Serena. “Now then, girly, are you finally ready to give up this pointless chase? We’ve been around the world at least twice by now. Just make it easier on yourself.”

Serena took a small step back, feeling the ground crumble under heel before she completed the step. “I’d love to girls, really I would… but I need to catch my ride.” Before they could react, Serea spun on her other heel and jumped off the cliff in a swan dive. The Dazzlings ran to the cliff, seeing their prey plummet.

Quickly, Serna grabbed a red-and-white ball from her belt and through it. “I need a quick get away, Rhyhorn!” The ball opened, releasing a blueish-white light that transformed into a charging, quadrupedal, silver behemoth. It growled out as Serena grabbed its back. “Rock climb!” she called out. The Pokémon’s claws extended out in glowing forms, allowing the rock type to race down the remaining cliff face with ease before jumping down to the ground.

It let out a growl of triumph as Serena panted. She slowly repositioned herself before Rhyhorn charged off into the desert. “Thanks, girl. I’ll make sure you get a nice treat when we hit the next town.” She let out delighted growl, smiling as she ran, leaving the Dazzlings in the dust.

Adagio screamed at the top of her lungs. “AFTER THEM!” But Serena was already far out of range of any weaponry they had on them.

The trainer let out a sigh of relief, laying down on her Pokémon, her eyelids feeling extremely heavy. “Rhyhorn… you know what to do, girl. Just… just wake me when we start to reach civilization.” The rock-type let out a grunt of confirmation as Serena drifted into sleep. Her final waking thoughts being, 'Ash… someday… someday we’ll find each other again. I know it.'

Author's Note

My newest, and hopefully final, Displaced story. A simple tale of finding your true love and going to the ends of the earth and beyond to be together with them. A nice little light hearted tale to mix things up.

I - Equestria

Chapter One: Reawakening

Canterlot Castle. A place synonymous with beauty, power, and magic. The castle has been home to Princess Celestia for nearly one thousand years, and the more recent home to Princess Luna as well. It is here that the princess sisters raise and lower their celestial bodies, the sun and moon respectively, every day and night. The two princesses both rule over the land of Equestria from this fortress, keeping their citizens safe from any evil that may come their way.

It was also at this site, most recently, that Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s personal student, had been crowned as Equestria’s newest princess. Her coronation had only been three short weeks ago, and already the new princess was feeling the stress of her new position. Mostly from a strange experience in the Crystal Empire for a special summit. Involving a theft, an old rival she didn’t know of, and even a parallel world.

And it was because of this parallel world, Princess Twilight was in Canterlot at this very moment.

“...certain you wouldn’t mind me taking the mirror for further study, Princess?” Twilight asked as she and her mentor walked the halls of Canterlot Castle.

Celestia let out light giggle. “Twilight, we are equals now. There is no reason to continue calling me ‘princess’.”

The younger alicorn blushed in a mix of embarrassment and shyness. “Sorry, Princess.”

“Oh, Twilight,” Celestia laughed, nuzzling her former student. “Never change. You’re still as adorkable as you were when you were a filly.”

Twilight blushed even more, whining a little like a child being purposefully embarrassed by their mother. “Princess~!”

Celestia still smiled as the two continued walking. “Anyways, you’re more than welcome to take the mirror for awhile. I’d be very interested to see what you find.”

Especially after what happened with your other mirror, Twilight thought to herself, remembering the other parallel world they dealt with only a week earlier. The two walked through a set of doors, entering into a small storage room where a large, decorative mirror sat in its magnificent jeweled, violet frame.

“The world of the humans,” Twilight said, still in awe of the mirror’s unique magic. A land where all of her friends and everypony she’d ever known were bipedal beings known as humans. A rare gem of knowledge and mystery, blocked off to the budding scientist for another few years, due to the mirror only being accessible every thirty moons.

“You made quite the commendable friends in our alternative dimension, Twilight,” Celestia said, trotting over to the mirror. “And I truly hope your change to Sunset Shimmer will also continue to hold. She deserves the light of friendship in her life.”

“I hope so too, Prin...err... Celestia.” Twilight smiled a little when her mentor beamed from the informal speech. “But before we try to move it, there’s a spell I want to try on it.”

Celestia backed away from the mirror. “Go ahead, Twilight.” She watched the young mare power up her horn, a little sweat trickling from her brow. “What does this spell do, exactly?”

“If my calculations are correct, it should be able to force the portal open before the thirty moons are up.”

Celestia blinked a little, watching her student. “That… that would be incredible. Even Star Swirl had trouble altering these mirrors, and he created them.”

“Then let’s see if I can surpass my hero,” Twilight grunted. Her horn built up with her magenta magic, burning bright in the low-lit room. When it reached its peak brightness, she fired it right at the mirror.

On contact, the magic encompassed the reflective surface entirely, drawing on the inner magical energy. The magenta aura started to swirl inwardly, almost hypnotically. But just as the swirl started to fill the mirror, the entire artifact glowed brightly with energy and dispersed it outward in the form of a magic shockwave. It blew right over Twilight and Celestia, making them push their hooves into the ground to prevent themselves from being blown away.

The energy flew right through the walls of the castle, making many of the unicorn staff drop and hold their horns in pain as the magic overpowered them. It continued out into the surrounding areas of the castle as well, including the statue garden. As it connected with a certain statue, the purple energy covered it in full. The glow soon faded away along with the energy wave, leaving the figure untouched… save for the fracturing lines along its torso.

Back with Twilight and Celestia, the two alicorns were rubbing their horns gently, keeping their growing headaches under control. “So much for that,” Twilight grumbled.

Celestia smiled apologetically. “Don’t be upset, Twilight. It was a very well prepared spell. The mirror’s magic just happened to be greater. Now then,” she said, draping her wing across Twilight’s back as they exited the room. “I shall have some guards move the mirror to the train station and have it ready to be shipped to Ponyville in the morning. In the meantime, why don’t we join Luna for some nice tea and crackers? Night court is agonizingly slow on Sundays.”

“Alright Celestia.” The two made their way towards the throne room. “So, has Luna’s court been picking up in popularity?”

Celestia tilted her head left and right for a moment. “It’s still slow going, but more and more have been showing up as the months continue on. But Luna always looks so happy when lines of ponies show up to meet with her. Some even drop by just to talk with her. They’re drawn to her friendly nature, I suppose.”

Twilight smiled at that. “She’s always such a delight to have around Ponyville. The colts and fillies absolutely adore her. The school is always buzzing anytime she visits.”

The solar princess giggled at the thought of seeing her younger sister playing with the younger generation. Twilight got caught up in the delight as they entered the throne room, Princess Luna, sipping some tea as she saw her visitors.

“Ah, sister, Twilight! Have you come to join me for snack time?” Luna asked.

“We have indeed,” Celestia nodded to her sister. “May we?”

Luna nodded happily. “Yes, yes, come in, come in! Tibbles and I were just about to begin ourselves!” She looked over to her happy Pokémon with a bright smile. “Isn’t that right, Tibbles?”

“Helio!” Tiberius cheered, spinning his ears as he hovered in the air. The Helioptile certainly was ready for his nightly snack. Luna giggled at her pet’s happiness, quickly setting out the cracker plate and tea kettle. Celestia and Twilight joined her as they all trotted over to the princesses’ hidden break room. No petitioner could see it as it was hidden behind an illusion that made the doorway look like another part of the wall.

The break room was quite ordinary compared to most of the castle. It appeared to be like any other employee break room; even Twilight compared it to the employee lounge at her father’s observatory. It had simple carpeting that was replaced about every ten years or so to a new color, which was currently a dark blue in celebration of Luna’s return, as well as a full, tile floor kitchen on the far side. Luna made her way to the electric stove as Celestia and Twilight made themselves comfortable at the round, white-marble table in the center of the room, with Tiberius making himself comfortable in his floor bed as he waited for his snack.

“So Twilight,” Luna said, making conversation as she prepared the tea. “How are things in Ponyville? Did the clean up go successfully?”

Twilight nodded as she munched on a cracker. “Oh yes, all the Everfree vines were cleared up before the day was through. Even though he caused the mess, Discord did quite well in removing the intruding plants.”

“And what of your friends?” Celestia added. “Are there still any hard feelings to giving up the Elements of Harmony?”

Twilight shook her head ‘no’. “No, they’ve taken it quite well. A couple were afraid that we’d lose our ‘spark’ of friendship without the Elements, but that’s proven false as we’re still the best of friends.”

“I am happy to hear that,” Celestia complimented with a bright smile.

“They’re not still worrying about your new position, are they? Luna asked as the tea kettle began to whistle.

“I’m still working on that,” Twilight admitted sheepishly. “They’re not as used to the whole royal thing as I am from being around Celestia all these years.”

“And yet you still refer to me as ‘Princess’ and think I would banish you for not sending in a friendship report on time.” the solar diarch thought ruefully with a smirk.

“Tea is done!” Luna declared, trotting over with the freshly brewed beverage and a tray of tea cups.

And so their conversation continued nicely, laughing and chatting over recent events and whatnot. Unaware of what was heading their way.

A figure was moving through Canterlot Castle, never letting any of the awestruck staff bother its course. Its two legs carried it at a fast pace, like a being on a mission, which it was. It approached the guarded door to the throne room, barely even noticing the two standing, navy blue armored guards.

“Stop right there!” one of them declared. Both raised their spears in defence, baring the creature entrance.

But still the creature never stopped.

“It’s not stopping!” the younger guard told his senior.

“Just hold steady, rookie. Nothing can get through the Night Guard!” the experienced officer declared. The figure soon came into the light of the moon, causing both ponies to gasp in shock. What stood before them was no pony, nor was it a hostile creature. Only a being who had stood the test of time through myth and legend.

“Goddess above,” they said in awe. As the being approached closer, they stood at attention in a snap on either side of the throne room entrance. “Welcome back, sir!” they saluted, allowing the creature entrance in.

The being put both of its hands against the large double door and shoved it open. The sound the wooden door made echoed its way into the break room, allowing all the princesses to hear the new entry.

Luna groaned lightly. “I thought I told the guards I wanted no more visitors until after my tea. Excuse me for a moment.” The lunar princess disappeared in a flash of blue magic, reappearing in front of her throne. “I don’t know why the guard’s let you in, but… but…” Luna’s voice disappeared as soon as her eyes saw the being standing in front of the open doors. She could only stare for several silent moments before, “CELESTIA!”

Celestia and Twilight immediately ran into the room, worried of what was happening. “Luna! What’s wrong‽” Her sister shakily lifted a hoof, pointing at the visitor. As soon as Celestia’s eyes settled on the being they went wide as the pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks. “It can’t be…”

“Who, or what, is that?” Twilight asked, unfamiliar with the being before her. She was faintly reminded of the humans she had met in the other dimension, but this one was of a lighter tan color than the multicolored ones she had met. On his head was a red hat with a white bill and the top pokéball symbol in white emblazoned on the front. His torso was covered with a blue vest-t-shirt with a few white lines on the front and sides. She could tell underneath was a plain black shirt that only just peeked out beneath the vest. His legs were concealed beneath a pair of blueish black pants that were tucked at the end into his short, red boots. On his hands were a pair of black, fingerless gloves with red cuffs. Certainly an odd look if Twilight had any say.

“Twilight,” Luna said slowly. “Allow us to introduce the first champion of Equestria, Ash Ketchum.” The younger alicorn’s eyes bugged as her jaw dropped, rendering her speechless.

Ash started to chuckle lightly under his breath. He looked up, allowing the shadow of the hat on his head to disappear from his face. His brown eyes radiated friendliness and his smirk gave an air of cockiness. He gave the three mares a two-fingered salute. “Hey there, Celly and Luny. Ya miss me?”

“More than you would believe, old friend,” Luna said, smiling happily at the human. “It is very good to see you moving again.”

“But how are you moving?” Celestia asked. “Your spell should not have been deactivated.”

It was at that moment that Twilight recovered. “Spell? What spell? Who is this?!”

“Twilight,” Celestia said in a motherly tone, putting her wing over her former student to calm the younger mare down. “This is our good friend, Ash Ketchum, as Luna said. But you, and most other ponies, know him as the great champion, Red.” Again, Twilight’s eyes bugged out. “He was that statue we had out in the gardens, so we could keep him close for the day he would return. But why now?”

“You tell me,” Ash shrugged, putting his hands behind his spiky, black hair. “I was supposed to be freed when Starswirl had that portal ready.”

Celestia looked away from her old friend, shame filling her. “Ah yes… the portal. About that…”

Ash chuckled a little, adjusting the brim of his hat. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

The solar princess blinked a little surprised. “You’re… you’re not mad at me?”

“Well, only a little,” he let out a brief laugh again. “You know I can’t be too mad at one of my best friends, not with everything we’ve been through. Besides, I wasn’t completely unaware of what happened while I was in stasis.” Ash looked to Luna, bowing his head lightly. “Welcome back home, Luna.”

With a smile, Luna nodded back. “Thank you, Ash. And welcome back to the land of the living.”

“It’s nice to be back.” He looked back to Celestia, his eyes slowly falling on Twilight. “Oh, didn’t see the other pony there. Finally settle down, Tia? ‘Bout time, if ya ask me.”

Celestia blushed, stuttering a little as she tried to reply coherently. She coughed into her hoof, calming herself down despite her red cheeks. “No, I haven’t. This is my former student, former because she has recently graduated and ascended.”

Strutting forward a bit and clearing her throat, Twilight spoke, “Greetings, champion. I am--”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Ash interrupted. “Newly crowned princess of Equestria and wielder of the Element of Magic.” Celestia, Luna, and Twilight stared dumbfoundedly at the human who smiled cockily. “Whassa matter? Persian got your tongue?”

“You… how did you know who I was?” Twilight finally asked.

He chuckled a little. “Simple: I cheated. It’s nice to meet you in the flesh, Miss Sparkle. Big fan.”

Celestia was the first to come back to her senses. “Ah, more of your foreknowledge, I assume?” Seeing her student looking to her for answers, the elder princess clarified. “Ash possesses certain prior knowledge of Equestria despite not hailing from its lands. He knew of my sister and I, as well as Discord and Starswirl the Bearded. Many times he mentioned of events in the far future, but always refused to enlighten us.” She eyed him toyingly. “Perhaps he’d care to explain himself finally.”

“Alright, ya caught me. Truth is… I’m psychic.” Nopony was amused. “Wow, tough crowd. Let me ask this first: does the word ‘television’ mean anything?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course. Television has been around for many years now, though I’ve never been a big fan of it myself.”

“Oh no?” Celestia asked with a teasing grin. “Then why has Spike several times told me stories of your soap opera addiction?”

Twilight gaped at her former mentor, blushing deeply at being caught red hoofed. “That’s… that’s… that’s my own business!” She straightened immediately, refusing to look her giggling mentor in the eye.

Ash burst out laughing. “Aaah, Celly, it’s heartwarming to see you’re still a troll. But, as I was saying, where I come from, the idea of Equestria was portrayed as a TV show.” The three ponies stared at him again, only this time as if he had gone mad. “Hear me out. They didn’t exactly know of you, but more like the idea of you. There was a show based around the adventures of Twilight Sparkle and her friends as they learned the magic of friendship under the watchful eyes of her mentors Princess Celestia and, upon her return, Princess Luna.”

“That’s-that’s just amazing!” Twilight beamed. “Sure there’s a bit of creepiness about it, but it’s unbelievable that some other place knew about us… wait, other place? So the legends are true?! You are an alien?!”

“Guilty as charged. Kinda hard to hide it; I stick out like a big, blue thumb with a red cap.”

“Wow, are all aliens human?” she asked, causing Ash’s eyes to widen slightly.

“What? Other humans? What other humans‽” he demanded.

Luna quickly stepped over to her old friend, consoling him from freaking out. “Twilight has been to the other side of the mirror. It was not too long ago that the portal had reopened.”

Ash looked at her in shock, his attention switching to Celestia as she sighed. “I had originally planned on that to be the point where we would finally release you, but other events prevented such a reunion. An old student of mine used the mirror for darker purposes, unfortunately causing us to get so caught up in the situation we forgot to undo the stasis spell. I am so sorry, Ash.”

There was silence for a few moments in the throne room to allow Ash to digest those words. He took a deep breath, letting it out very slowly. “I’m… I’m not mad at you, either of you. Just… disappointed, I suppose. I was really looking forward to being able to get through that mirror, but if what you say is true, it won’t open for a few years.”

“It’s true, my friend,” Luna said sadly. “I wish it were not so, but it is.”

“I figured as much.” Ash sighed, straightening his back and doing a couple small stretches. “Guess that just means I’ll have to wait.”

“What?” Celestia asked, a little surprised at the sudden turn.

A smile appeared on the human’s face. “No point in wallowing in self-pity, Serena’d have my head if I did that. Nah, just gotta roll with the punches, as they say, and make the best of what I got. I mean, I’ve still got my health, few good friends,” he gestured to Luna and Celestia, “What more could I need to restart life?”

Luna giggled a little. “I had forgotten how much of a disposition you had for being cheery.”

“Bah!” Ash waved off. “Why get bogged down with depressing stuff when there’s plenty to be grateful for, eh?”

“Right,” Celestia agreed with a smile. “How about you take a walk with us? There’s something we need to show you.”

“No problem Celly. I could use a good walk, my legs still feel stiff.”

She snorted at the bad joke, leading Ash, Twilight, and Luna out of the throne room and down one of the many halls of Canterlot Castle. As they four strode around, the always-inquisitive Twilight decided to ask some questions of the long lost champion.

“Mr. Ketchum, if it’s not too much ask, why were you sealed in stone?”

“Firstly, just call me ‘Ash’. I’m not big on formalities. Secondly, Celly and Luny put me in stone for my own benefit. See, a long time ago, I lost someone very special to me, someone I care about more than life itself. But the place she was lost to was not reachable by Equestrian magic. Starswirl swore to me he would find a way for me to get her back, but he had no idea how long it would take.”

“Starswirl told us it could take years, maybe even decades, to create the spell,” Luna interjected. “We couldn’t put Ash through such torment, so we offered him a chance to wait without feeling it: a stasis spell, one designed after Discord’s prison itself.”

“Obviously, I took it because I felt it would be easier than simply waiting around with a broken heart.” Ash sighed forlornly. “They said the spell would break as soon as the proper gateway had been designed, but with other events eclipsing the project, it probably got lost in their memories.”

Luna and Celestia both winced at that. “We are truly sorry, Ash. Really we are.”

“I know, I know. Things happened, I get that. Waiting’s just hard sometimes, but I’m sure you know that feeling, Celly.”

Celestia nodded, nuzzling her little sister who blushed from the affection. “But waiting can make the prize much sweeter. And speaking of prizes…”

Ash wondered why she had trialed off, only to notice that he was standing in a museum exhibit. But not just any exhibit, it was an exhibit to him… well, Red that is. There were many of the old paintings that he had been told were created after his more famous matches. One image was of his pal, Charizard, blazing down on Articuno in the Frozen North. He smiled as he remembered that ancient battle against the Crystal Emperor, before Sombra rose to power. Another painting depicted his Grovyle striking a Leaf Blade attack against the Griffon King’s mighty Scizor. A match that had lasted long with neither side willing to give up; Ash remembered it fondly.

Eventually, his eyes wandered to the center of the exhibit where a strange stone creature sat on a podium and encased in glass. The statue was of a short, chubby little rodent-like Pokémon. It had long, pointed ears and a strange circle on each cheek. Its short forearms were tipped with five fingers on each paw while its feet had three toes. On the back was a clear indication of a lightning bolt-shaped tail. Ash stood speechless as he looked over the statue, reading the bronze plaque in front of the glass that read:

Blue (Pikachu)

The number one Pokémon of Red and his greatest friend

Celestia walked up to the stunned human, smiling sadly. “You were always remembered, Ash. Especially by him.”

Ash put his hand gently on the glass, shaking slightly. “I left him behind,” he said quietly after a moment. “In my rush to stop the pain, I left my best friend behind. He must have hated me for that.”

“What was he like?” Twilight asked, suddenly at Ash’s other side. “The legends say that Blue was an actual blue Pikachu, but that’s not possible. Right?”

He let out a small, somber laugh. “Believe it or not, the legends are true. A blue Pikachu, the only one of his kind. He was a special friend, unlike any I had ever had. We were inseparable, almost always together. And when we hit the battlefield, there wasn’t a trainer around that could hold up. The best of friends… and I just left him…”

“But he didn’t leave you.” Ash looked at Celestia, trying to keep himself from crying. She smiled lightly at him. “Did you really think that Blue, of all Pokémon, would ever let you go so easily?”

He stared at her for a good long moment before realization sunk in. “No…”

Celestia nodded with a smile. “That is no statue. Blue asked for us to put him into the same stasis state as you. Due to his size, however, we did not trust leaving him to the statue garden. As such, we placed him within our newly built castle so that we may always have eyes on him. Only one theft was ever attempted, yet the thief was oddly found electrocuted just outside.”

Ash couldn’t help, but laugh uproariously. “Even as a statue, that lil’ monster is causing trouble.” He sighed as he calmed down, looking at the statue with a smile. “Can’t let me do anything on my own, eh? Thanks bud.”

“Wouldn’t you rather say that to him directly?” Luna asked, stepping next to Celestia.

“Nah, he’d never let me live it down if I got all sappy on him.” He chuckled. “So… can I get my best bud back?”

“All you needed to do was ask.”

Celestia and Luna both powered up their horns, igniting with golden and navy-blue energy respectively. The two energies swirled around Blue’s statue, spinning into a small twister that completely covered it from sight. The magic swirled greater and greater, tiny lightning bolts shooting out from its core. In a blinding flash, the tornado erupted into a blast of magic. As their eyesight returned, Ash smiled at seeing a deep blue Pikachu sitting behind the glass looking as if he was just waking up. Little yellow sparks shot out from his red cheeks and his blue tail wagged back and forth to return feeling to it. Blue’s eyes slowly blinked opened, yawning widely as he stretched his arms, one going to scratch the even-darker-blue stripes on his back.

Ash tapped the glass, getting the Pikachu’s attention. Upon seeing his trainer, Blue’s eyes lit up and he smiled widely. “Pika pi!” he cheered.

“Blue! It is you!!”

Celestia cast another spell, causing the glass between the trainer and Pokémon to disappear. Blue jumped forward and Ash caught him in a hug, the two laughing together.

“I missed you too, buddy! ...Blue?” Ash asked, not hearing him say anything back. He looked down at his pikachu that was giving a devilish smirk as his cheeks sparked. “...aw cr--”

“PIKACHU!” A massive electric shock blasted Ash from Blue, electrocuting him.

“Dear Celestia!” Twilight gasped in shock, no pun intended.

With the Thunderbolt complete, Blue smiled smugly as his trainer lay in a smoking heap on the ground. Slowly, Ash forced himself into a sitting position, laughing just a bit. “Yep, that’s Blue alright. Zapping me anytime I do something stupid.”

“Pika pipichu pika,” Blue replied in pokéspeak.

“Yeah, I really outdid my stupid level on that one, buddy. Sorry about that.” He laughed again, rubbing the back of his head.

“You understand the Pokémon language?” Twilight asked, amazed that a human would have such a rare ability.

“Me? Nah, only Blue. It’s just another part of our close bond. I can always understand what he’s saying, not sure how, just do.” Ash got up from the floor, brushing the burt dust particles off his clothes as Blue jumped onto his shoulder. The pikachu looked at the ponies, immediately eyeing Luna.

“Pika~, pikachu pika pikachu.”

Luna blushed deeply, coughing to keep her voice straight. “Ever as playful, little Blue.”

“Pikachu pipichu,” Blue replied with bedroom eyes.

“Dude! Even after all this time and you still talk like that? You kiss your mother with that mouth?” Ash scolded him. Blue deadpanned at him. “It was a figure of speech, man.”

“Pikachu.”

“Well,” Celestia interrupted, hoping the vulgar Pikachu wasn’t scaring her pupil… or her sister for that matter. “With you two reunited, we should make preparations for your return to the public domain. A ceremony perhaps would be the best way, a signal that the former champion has returned home.”

Ash’s ear twitched at a the use of a certain word Celestia had said. “Hold up, Tia. Did you say ‘former’ champion?”

“Why yes. Your title was forfeited after your disappearance after all. A new champion had to be crowned and--”

“Who is it?” he interrupted.

“Pardon?”

“Who is the new champion of Equestria?”

“Well, I am of course--”

“Not for long,” Ash smirked.

Celestia blinked, attempting to understand what he was saying. “You’re… you’re challenging me? For the title of champion?”

“That is correct.”

Celestia and Luna shared a look of concern. “Are you certain about this? You’ve only just been freed, you should take this time to rest and--”

“Eh tut tut tut, no time to rest!” Ash declared. “I need to show the world that the original Pokémon trainer has returned! And I’ll start by claiming my title as champion back!”

The solar princess sighed, knowing it would be futile to change her friend’s mind. “Alright, but I cannot simply accept your challenge. You must defeat the Equestrian Elite Four before you are allowed to challenge me. No getting around it and they must all be in succession.”

“Deal.”

“You will have a day to prepare yourself,” Luna informed him. “This will give us enough time to get the members together and inform them of the situation. You are welcome to this castle as an honored guest of course, but please don’t cause any trouble.”

“Oh come on, Luny. When do I ever get into trouble? ...don’t answer that,” he added quickly to prevent Luna from speaking up. She smiled victoriously at him.

“Then I wish you good luck, Ash,” Celestia spoke with seriousness. “We Equestrians have learned much in the way of battle since your time. These Elite Four will be no pushover to defeat.”

“I was hoping that would be the case. Ooh, I can’t wait to get back in the battle! But first!” Ash’s stomach let out a loud growl. “I could really use something to eat.”

Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all fell over from the suddenness of his words, the two former groaning. “He never changes.” Everyone started laughing and smiling, knowing that it wouldn’t be too long before Equestria’s greatest battles were going to take place.

Who are the Equestrian Elite Four and what challenges will they present for our hero? Stay tuned to find out.

Author's Note

Certain Pokémon names are not capitalized, this is purposeful. When a name is capitalized, it is referring to a specific Pokémon. When lowercase, it is referring to the species.

II - EQG

Chapter 2: Adjusting

Canterlot City. A peaceful small town out of the way of any big city life that could interfere with its tranquility. Most people you would find in this town were quite friendly to one another, almost everyone knowing everyone else’s names. Many considered it to be a great place to settle down and raise a family, allowing for one of the town’s prominent establishments to be built: Canterlot High School.

It was at this site only one week prior that strange happenings had begun around the small town school. Reports of unusual lights, strange new people in town, and even a demon sprang up around the time of the school’s Fall Formal dance. But surely such things couldn’t be real...

Right?

It was within this town where we find our hero, once again running for her life.

Serena quickly ducked into an alley and behind a dumpster as her pursuer ran by without seeing her. She put a hand to her fast beating heart, trying to get it to calm down as her back slowly slid down the side of the trash bin until her butt was on the ground. Once she was finally calm, she stood and dusted off her red and black dress. Or at least that’s what most people would assume, when it was a simple red skirt paired with a greyish-black tank top that had a white collar.

Serena made a quick check to make sure her knee-height stockings weren’t torn before taking off again with her black tennis shoes kicking up dust as she ran through the alley. She had to adjust her dark pink hat slightly to make sure it wouldn’t fall off, skidding out of the alley and rushing off in the opposite direction her pursuer had gone only a minute prior.

She chuckled to herself, looking back as she ran. “Finally lost that little nuisance. Now, if I hurry, I should be able to--oof!” Serena felt herself run into something plump yet hard and fell to the ground. “Ow,” she whined, rubbing her head. “What did I hit?”

“Me, that’s who.” Serena froze, remembering hearing that voice screaming at her only minutes before. She looked up slowly, seeing a tall man wearing a dark blue uniform with a single gold badge on his chest and a small blue cap with a black bill on his head. His skin was completely white with a tuft of blue hair sticking out from underneath his cap. He stared down on Serena with fierce cerulean eyes. “You’re in a lot of trouble, young lady.” The officer grabbed Serena by the arm and forcefully hauled her to her feet.

“H-hey! Watch it! You’re being too rough!” She tried to yank her arm out of the officer’s grip, but it wasn’t very successful. She had been caught.

“Stop struggling,” he reprimanded. “You’ve got someplace to be.” He opened the door to his nearby cruiser and shoved her in, slamming the door shut. The officer got in the driver’s seat and made sure the doors were locked before driving off.

Serena’s first instinct was to try the doors, trying to force open the lock. Unfortunately, the locks seemed to have been hammered down into the door, preventing them from being manually unlocked. She placed her hand on the window, putting a little pressure against it. It felt far too strong to be able to break from her force. She knew any number of her Pokémon could get her out of this situation, but revealing their existence was not a risk she was willing to make. She didn’t feel like making another mythical creature that a small town could obsess over and making her move.

Serena eventually let out a long sigh and laid back against the seat, not knowing where the blasted cop was taking her.

It didn’t take long for her to find out, since the town she was living in was relatively small. And seeing her destination caused Serena to dread it with wide eyes. “Oh no. No, no, no, no!” She stared in complete horror at the large horseshoe shaped building, two stories lined with tall windows. The large horse statue ar front didn’t help her fears alleviate at all.

“Quiet back there,” the cop scolded. “It’s just high school, little girl.” He pulled his car up in front of the school and parked it there. He got out and opened up the back door, Serena doing her very best to bolt from the car and get as far away as possible. The policeman was just a bit faster, grabbing the very top of her pink backpack. “You’re not getting away again. I’m tired of you playing hookie every single day.”

“I’m not playing hookie, you jerk!” Serena snapped, struggling against his hold on her back.

“Uh huh, sure you’re not. We’ll see what the principal Celestia has to say about that.”

Serena froze, causing her to get dragged back. “Principal who?” she wondered to herself, not knowing if she had heard the officer right. She was dazed for so long she never even realized that she had been dragged all the way to the principal’s office. She was forced into a chair outside the office door.

The officer pointed a finger in her face. “Stay put.” He looked to the secretary. “Watch her, will ya? Don’t wanna chase her across town again.” He shook his head as he barged into the office.

Serena sighed, putting her head in her hands. “This day is going absolutely lovely,” she said to herself.

It was only a few moments later when the officer walked back out, a tall woman in tow. Serena had to blink when her eyes looked up, almost experiencing deja vu. The woman had the whitest skin she had ever seen, long multi-colored hair hanging around her face and down past her back. Wore a long pair of purple pants and a yellow, almost brownish, sweater over a white trimmed purple top with a pin of the sun in the sweater’s collar. The similarities between this woman and Serena’s old friend, Princess Celestia, were far too glaring to be real. She honestly couldn’t believe what she was looking at.

“This is her?” the woman, who Serena assumed to be principal Celestia, asked. Even her voice was the same Serena had come to know.

“Yep, been trying to catch her for a week straight now, but she always slipped by. But not today!” he declared proudly.

Celestia looked at him with a playful smirk. “Well, I commend you on a job well done, Officer Armor. But I hate to tell you, she’s not one of my students.”

He blinked and looked at her in shock. “B-but this is the only high school in town! Look at her! She’s obviously of high school age! I doubt her parents would have sent her here for any other reason!”

‘Parents sent me here?’ Serena mused to herself. ‘What kind of high school has kids sent to it? It didn’t look like a private school from the outside. One certainly doesn’t belong in town as small as this.’

“I can guarantee completely that she is not a student at Canterlot High,” Celestia reaffirmed. “I know what students belong here, Shining Armor. I trust you to remember from your own years here.”

Officer Shining gulped, nodding his head. “Yes, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am.”

Serena smiled to herself. ‘Yes, looks like I can get out of here and still make it to-’

“But you are right that she’s still too young to be wandering about.” Celestia turned to Shining. “You’re dismissed officer, I can take things from here.”

He nodded with a salute. “Have a pleasant day, Ms. Sol.” He walked briskly down the hall and towards the exit of the school.

“Please come in,” Celestia offered to Serena, regaining her attention. The woman held the door open, gesturing inside.

Serena sighed. ‘So much for getting to work on time today.’ She got up and walked into the office, silently noting it was quite simple, with very little personal effects scattered around. Taking the first chair in front of the principal’s desk, she laid her backpack down and put her cheek on fist, leaning to her left.

“So, tell me,” the principal said after closing the door and sitting down. “What’s your name.”

“Serena,” she replied boredly.

“I sense that you don’t want to be here. Why is that? Have some place to be?”

“Yes, actually,” Serena said, straightening a bit. “I’m supposed to be at work by now, not sitting at a blasted high school.”

“Do you have something against my school?” Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, but I have no reason to be here.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I graduated already. Many years ago.” ‘More than you will ever know,’ Serena secretly smirked.

“Impressive. So you’re simply young for your age, quite the mix up this appears to be.”

“A complete mix up that may have cost me the only job I could get in this town,” Serena said with a groan.

“Oh? And where is that?”

“The diner down on fourth,” she waved off. “But there’s no way the manager is gonna let me keep the job after being this late.”

“Why don’t you call down there and explain?” Celestia reached into her pocket and pulled out a cellphone. A flip-phone, to Serena’s disbelief. She hadn’t seen one in years. “Go on, I’ll wait.”

Serena stared at the phone for a moment before shrugging and taking the phone. She dialed in the number to her work place. A voice came on the other side after a couple rings and she tentatively replied to her manager’s voice.

“H-hi Mr. Schnitzel. It’s Serena.”

The other end of the phone practically exploded with rage as her manager started shouting into the phone. She had to keep her arm outstretched so the volume wouldn’t hurt her ears, but even from that distance she could hear his ramblings perfectly. Then she heard the ‘f’ word come over the phone and she panicked. “No, no please, Mr. Schnitzel! Please don’t fire me! I need this job!” The returning yells did not bode well for the trainer.

Celestia cleared her throat, getting Serena’s attention. “May I?” She offered out her hand. Serena really didn’t have any other options and figured it would be her best bet. The trainer slowly put the phone in the principal’s hand, pulling back once she dropped it in. Celestia brought the phone up to her ear. “Hello, Mr. Schnitzel!” she said cheerfully. “Yes, this is principal Celestia over at Canterlot High.” She smiled brighter as the manager calmed down and Serena was surprised to hear him reply happily to Celestia. “Yes it is good to talk with you again. Oh sure, I’ll try and stop down sometime soon, but back to Serena. There was a small mix up with our truant officer thinking she was a student here that has been playing hooky. I am sure you do want her down there, but I’d like to propose a compromise where both parties will turn out for the better in the end.”

Celestia spun in her chair, facing away from Serena as she continued the conversation in a quieter tone. Serena felt annoyed she was being left out of a talk that was concerning the only way she was currently putting food in her belly. There was nothing she could do, though, so she just waited for them to finish.

Several minutes passed, almost like an hour to the increasingly bored Serena, but Celestia finally turned back around, still smiling brightly. “...I’m so glad you agree, Schnitzel. Yes, she’ll be there bright and early tomorrow, I can assure you.” She laughed lightly. “Alright, thank you and I shall see you next Friday night. Good-bye.” Celestia hung up the phone and pocketed it. “Your employer and I have come to an agreement.”

“An agreement to what?” Serena asked, highly suspicious.

“To prevent further complications with the other truant officers, you will be attending classes here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And you will work the other days as well as after class on certain days.”

Serena gaped at Celestia. “You… you can’t be serious‽ Why should I have to attend high school again‽”

Celestia sighed, placing her hands clasped in front of her. “Serena, this is no ordinary high school,” she said straight faced. “It is not a public school, nor is it a private, or boarding school. No, this school is special, unique even. I built this school with one, important thing in mind: to make students’ lives better. This school properly prepares its students for life in the world. Students are encouraged to open businesses or to apply for jobs in town. Apartments are provided and, while they must be paid for monthly, they are discounted extremely from the other places around. Career training, health and fitness, proper life skills, all of these I wanted to be available for students so that they may become better, productive members of society. But I have never said that all students must be of high school age. I have accepted as young as twelve years olds into the halls here, but I am willing to go older.” A glint appeared in her eye as Serena stared with rapt attention. “This school will be able to provide you with a much better living arrangement than you have as well as giving you access to whatever resources you need. And, you get to keep your employment with the added benefit of being able to make ties for even greater careers. Of course, this is all only if you agree to the terms I’ve laid out to you.”

When Celestia finished, Serena was completely stunned. Proper living arrangements, access to food, and even getting to keep her job. And all she had to do in return was attend high school three days out of the week. It was almost too good to be true. Far too good. “What’s the catch?”

Celestia shook her head. “I can assure you that there is no catch. Everything is as I have laid it out to you.”

Serena bit her lip, not entirely sure. She debated inwardly for several long, painful moments before giving a relenting sigh. She looked up at Celestia and nodded. “Alright, Celestia. You have a deal.” The two shook hands, getting up at the same moment.

“I’m very pleased that you have accepted, Serena. I’ll have someone come down and give you a tour of our establishment.” She pressed the intercom button and spoke into the microphone. “Sunset Shimmer to the principal's office. Sunset Shimmer to the principal’s office.” She looked back to Serena. “She’ll be here in a moment.”

A minute passed before the door opened and a young woman walked in. She was roughly Serena’s height, but with amber skin. She had a full head of crimson hair with yellow stripes that reached all the way down her back, but stopped there unlike Celestia’s. Her teal eyes showed happiness, but Serena could have sworn there was something underlying that joyful smile. She wore a pair of black boots with a splash of magenta on them that extended up almost to her knee caps. She wore a short orange skirt with a yellow and magenta stripe in the lower corner, along with magenta tank top underneath a pure black jacket. Upon her shirt was the image of a shimmering sun.

“You called for me, principal Celestia?” Sunset asked.

“Yes. This is Serena, she’ll be joining us here at Canterlot High as of today. I’d like for you to show her around and get her settled into her classes.”

“Sure thing, ma’am,” Sunset said with a informal salute. “Come on,” she spoke to Serena, opening up the door again. “I’ll get you where you need to go.”

Serena was about to walk out after Sunset, but Celestia called to her one more time. “Oh, and Serena? One more thing before you go, do you have a surname I can put on the paperwork?”

“Oh, sure.” Serena smiled. “It’s Ketchum. Serena Ketchum.” Celestia nodded and Serena walked out, grabbing her schedule from the secretary at the desk. She made a note of the secretary’s name, Raven, for future reference. She also felt like that was eerily familiar, but couldn’t place why. Sunset had been waiting outside for her, so the two started walking off with Serena’s schedule in hand. “So, you know where all of these are?”

“Oh yeah, it’s almost like they just reprinted my schedule with your name on it,” Sunset laughed a bit. “They must have thought it would be easier for me to show you around if we had the same classes. Guess you’ll be with me for most of the days.”

Serena smiled a bit. “Well, hopefully, we’ll be friends then. I’d hate to start off a new year with an enemy.”

“Yeah, friends,” Sunset said, a little worriedly.

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, just something weird popped into my head. Nothing to worry about.”

Serena wasn’t so sure about that, but since they just met, she didn’t want to pry. Instead, she took the silence to look around the school. It didn’t look too different from the ones she had been inside back on Earth, but it did have a lot of horse-themed apparel around. Even a banner declaring the school team to be the “Wondercolts”. She could have sworn that was a rip off of Celestia’s Wonderbolt air team back in Equestria. In fact, there were a lot of things about the town that reminded her of Equestria, including the town’s name itself: Canterlot City.

She noticed Sunset speaking, and decided to snap out of her observations. “Hmm, what was that? I spaced out for a moment.”

“It’s alright. I said, ‘I hope you don’t mind if we stop at my locker. I need to grab a book for class’.”

“Oh, no I don’t mind at all.”

Sunset led them down one of the side halls, stopping at a set of lockers that were halfway between two classrooms. Serena waited as the other girl opened up her locker, knowing it wouldn’t take too long. But upon the locker’s opening, she couldn’t help but do a double take. Before she could comprehend what she saw though, Sunset had grabbed the book and slammed the locker door shut.

Smiling back at Serena, Sunset started walking again. “Come on, culinary class is about to start.”

Serena nodded and followed after. She thought over what she saw, and would have sworn to the high heavens above what she saw. ‘I know what I saw in there. The only question is, why does this human girl have pokéballs?’

Several hours later, Serena and Sunset finished their first day of school together. While they didn’t sit next to each other all day, they were in each and every class together just as Sunset had said. In fact, Serena’s only break from Sunset was lunch where the other girl had spent most of it at table with five other multicolored girls. Serena had taken the chance to eat alone and enjoy the peace and quiet she had grown accustomed to over her many years on this world.

After their final class, Serena was told to report back to the principal’s office to retrieve her new housing information. She bid Sunset farewell and rushed on down, nearly shocking the secretary with her speed. Ms. Raven handed over all the necessary forms and Serena filled each out and signature in a few places.

What had surprised her the most was that she was free to move in that day, with most of her stuff already having been moved to her new shared apartment. That was another thing that struck her: shared apartment. She was gonna be stuck with a roommate. Serena wasn’t so keen on the idea, but the rent would be split between two people and was already half as much as what she was already paying on her own. She thanked Ms. Raven and headed off for the Royal Garden Apartment complex. It wasn’t too far from the school, only about three or four blocks, but it did mean she’d have a much harder time walking to work. She figured not everything would be made easier here, at least it wasn’t something too horrible.

The complex itself had about five buildings, all of them looking very nice with red roofs and white siding on all of them. Each room had a patio deck, and each looked large enough to support a grill party easily. Her new home was in the second building, four floors up out of the five that were possible. She muttered the room number as she searched along the many doors, stopping at the farthest end.

“Number 413,” she whispered. “Looks like this is the place.” She knocked on the door, just loud enough to be heard on the other side. “Hello? I’m your new roommate.”

“Hold on!” a familiar voice called from the other side. When the door opened, neither side could believe who they were looking at.

“Sunset‽”

“Serena‽”

The two girls just stared at each other for several moments, only blinking because their eyes tired of staring.

“We’re roommates?” Sunset asked, just as bewildered as Serena felt. “This has to be some kind of joke. I mean, I don’t mind us being in class together, but this… this is just a little too much.”

“Oh trust me, I completely understand you on that,” Serena readily agreed. “But, I’m pretty sure Ms. Raven and Ms. Celestia have gone home for the day. I doubt we can get a change.”

Sunset sighed, knowing she was right. “Well, can’t very well have you sleep on the streets. I’ve been told that’s not very friendly.” She gestured into her home with a small laugh. “Come on in. Make yourself at home for the night.”

Serena nodded and walked in, noting that it was actually a very nice apartment. Definitely not the most updated place, but not something that was like the rat’s nest she lived in uptown. The carpeting was an aged blue and took up most of the living space, save for the small amount of white tile that was no longer the pure color it was in the kitchen. The kitchen itself had some outdated appliances, but they all looked to be in working order. A fridge, stove, microwave, oven, and even a toaster. Serena even spied a coffee maker in the corner. She would love to have access to home brewed coffee again. The living area was taken up with a large teal-green couch that sat along side the far wall facing a moderately sized television. It was old box model, but Serena guessed that it didn’t matter as there was still plenty of room to see the roughly forty inch screen. The door to the patio was between the couch and the kitchen and there was a nice big window on the far side of of the room between the wall with the couch and the side with the tv.

“I was actually wondering why the normally empty room had suddenly been filled with stuff when you showed up,” Sunset said as she rifled through the fridge. “I bet it was all in Celestia’s planning. She makes a whole lot of those strange plans, so I wouldn’t put it past her.”

‘Just like Celestia back home,’ Serena noted to herself. “What are you doing?”

“Well, since I wasn’t prepared to have a roomie for the night, I best get to cooking. Hope you’re good with a TV dinner. I don’t really have all that much.”

“I’ve survived off worse,” Serena laughed. “Little TV dinner isn’t gonna hurt my appetite.”

“Good,” Sunset said, pulling two said meals out of the upper freezer section of the fridge. She opened them up and stuck one in the microwave to cook. “If you want, you can turn on the TV. Only gets basic cable, but, hey, it’s something.”

“Truer words have never been spoken,” Serena chuckled. She took a spot on the couch and flipped through the few channels that Sunset had. There were only about fifty channels, but it definitely offered some variety. Cartoons, sports, sitcoms, many things that Serena had come to know as a luxury over the years.

She heard a beeping after few minutes and a tray was placed in her view. “Thanks,” she smiled at Sunset, who smiled back and sat down next to her, helping herself to her own meal. Serena gently prodded the microwaved mac n’ cheese meal, knowing it would never taste as good as the real stuff. That didn’t stop her from eating it, nor enjoying have a good warm meal that hadn’t been from earlier in the day… despite it almost tasting like it.

Sunset finished first, setting her tray on the coffee table in front of them. “So, how are you liking CHS?” she asked, obviously starting up small talk.

“It’s definitely a nice school,” Serena said, finishing her own meal up. “Not too much different from any other school I’ve been to, but everyone at least seems nice. Though, I do have a question.”

“Shoot,” Sunset said with her eyes closed as she leaned back against the couch.

“How long have you been a Pokémon trainer?”

Sunset’s eyes popped open wide, spasming away from Serena and falling to the ground next to the couch. When her head popped back into view she was staring in disbelief at Serena. “Wh-what‽ What are you talking about‽”

“I saw them in your locker,” Serena admitted with a shrug. “I had to confirm. And your reaction more than affirms it. As such…” She suddenly threw herself next to Sunset. “Please, please, please tell me how you got here! I desperately need to get back to Equestria!”

“Y-you need to get back to Equestria?” Sunset asked warily. “So, you’re actually from there too?”

“Mhmm,” Serena nodded her head. “Please tell me everything you know on how to get back.”

Sunset blinked for a moment before letting out a sigh. “I have a feeling this is gonna be a long night.”

Does Sunset possess the secret that Serena has been searching desperately for? Or has another one of Serena’s dreams been dashed? Stay tuned.

III - Equestria

Chapter Three: Preparation

We rejoin our hero in Equestria doing what most heroes do with their free time after being sealed away for many years: watching television. In one of the many guest rooms of the castle, Ash had his body draped across the center of the couch. He let out a loud laugh, dropping some popcorn into his mouth as he watched the pictures on the screen. He’d been lucky enough to come across a comedy channel and was heavily enjoying himself. It had been a long time since he’d been able to enjoy a good comedy show.

Later today would be his challenge to the Elite Four and he’d spent the entire previous day figuring out strategies and planning his team appropriately. It had taken a lot of thought, but Ash was pretty sure he had the right team to take on anything the Elite Four would send his way. So for now, he would just relax and wait for the clock to strike twelve. His eyes drifted up to the clock, seeing he still had four hours to go.

‘Hope we get lunch beforehand’, he thought idly to himself, returning to his program. After a few minutes, there was a knocking at the door. Ash looked at it for a moment before turning the volume down slightly on the box. “Who is it?” he called.

“Oh, Mr. Ketchum? It’s Twilight. I was wondering if my friends and I could speak with you?”

Ash smiled at the prospect. “Sure! Door’s open; come on in!”

The door opened, Twilight standing there with a smile, the silhouettes of five other ponies behind her. He thought he could make out another, smaller shape with them, but his vision was suddenly blocked by a wall of pink. Ash smirked when he realized what it meant.

“Hiya!” a pink pony with even pinker poofy hair said, smiling widely at him upside down. Well, it wasn’t her that was upside down, it was Ash’s preferred watching position that made it seem like she was.

“‘Sup?” Ash replied cheerily.

“Not you!” the mare snorted, trying to hold back her chuckles.

“Uh, Mr. Ketchum?” Twilight asked.

Ash turned to look at her. “I told you, Twilight, call me ‘Ash’. I don’t like formalities from friends.” Twilight smiled a bit at being called a friend. “Now come on in, everypony. Lemme see ya.”

All in all, six ponies had piled into his room along with a little dragon, all looking at him. Twilight stepped forward a bit and gestured to the others. “Ash, these are my friends-”

“No no, lemme see if I can remember,” Ash said, readjusting himself to be sitting up. He leaned forward, tapping a finger on his chin as he looked over the assembled girls and boy. He pointed first at the pink pony. “This is an easy one. The ever laughing party pony of Ponyville, Pinkie Pie.”

“That’s me!” Pinkie giggled with a smile.

Ash couldn’t help, but smile back before pointing at the orange earth pony wearing the cowboy hat. “Ever honest Applejack.”

“A pleasure, darlin’,” she replied in her southern tone with a tip of her hat.

He tipped the brim of his own in return. Ash’s next target was an elegant looking white unicorn mare with a styled purple mane and tail. “A pleasure to meet the elegant and generous Rarity,” he said with a gentleman’s bow.

Rarity covered a giggle with her hoof. “Oh my, you are a delightful gentlecolt.”

“I try,” Ash said with a smug shrug. He heard the flapping of wings and looked up to see a cyan pegasus with wind swept prismatic hair. “Ah, the fastest and most loyal flyer in all of Equestria, the great Rainbow Dash.”

“That’s me,” she replied in a gruff voice. “So… are you really Red? Because you don’t look like much of a champion.”

“Rainbow!” Twilight said in a harsh tone.

Ash waved for Twilight to calm down with a laugh. “Nah, it’s okay, Twi. I know I don’t look the part, but that’s because I choose comfort over something fancy. When battling, you gotta be able to stay in the zone and fancy clothes just mess me up. I’ll do it for ceremonies, but I’ll stick with my own duds on my own time.”

Rainbow nodded. “I can respect that. It’s not right if you’re just all cramped and uncomfortable.”

Ash was grateful she understood and started looking around. He saw his next new friend and smiled. “Oops, can’t forget about the little dragon, Spike.”

“You know who I am?” the drake asked, a little surprised.

“Yeah I do, show me some scale,” he smiled, holding his hand, palm up, out to him.

Spike wasn’t sure what he meant, but seeing an appendage similar to his claw he got an idea of what it was supposed to be. He lifted up his own claw and slammed his palm to Ash’s. The resounding smack, made the girls wince, but Ash just smiled.

“That’s my boy!” he cheered, chuckling as he grabbed Spike around the neck and gave the little dragon a noogie.

“H-hey! Watch the scales!” Spike said as he laughed along.

Ash laughed a little more before letting Spike go, the drake grumbling with a smile as he tried to fix his undamaged scales. “Now… I know I’m forgetting someone… but who?” He rubbed his chin, trying to remember as he scanned the group. He caught sight of a long pink tail behind the doorway, but as soon as it was in view, it disappeared with a ‘meep’. “Oh yeah!” Ash said with a snap of his fingers. “The kindly soul of dear Miss Fluttershy. Good, that was gonna bug me all day if I didn’t remember.”

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow called. “What are you doing out there? All the fun is in here!”

“O-oh,” a butter-yellow pegasus said, sticking her muzzle into view. “I-I, um..”

Ash waved it off again. “It’s alright, Rainbow. If she’s more comfortable out there, than that’s perfectly fine.”

Rainbow and Pinkie both stared at him. “Really‽” they said in shock.

“Well yeah,” he shrugged. “I’m not gonna make her do something she’s uncomfortable with. That would be most unbecoming.” His last sentence was voiced with such a posh tone all them chuckled a bit at his antics.

“Pika!” Blue called as he walked out of the little kitchen the guest room provided. He was carrying a large bowl of popcorn above his head, trying not spill his delicious prize. It proved to be a fruitless endeavour as he was tackled by Fluttershy, effectively spilling his popcorn all over the floor.

“Oh, he’s so cuuute~,” Fluttershy cooed, glomping Blue. The pikachu was not taking kindly to the affection, but once the pegasus mare started petting his head, he melted to her touch, purring softly.

“You weren’t kidding, darling,” Rarity said in awe of the blue Pokémon.

“Ah’ll be licked by lickilickies,” Appelack said after rubbing her eyes. “An actual blue pikachu. Never thought such an impossible thing could be true.”

Twilight nodded with a giddy smile. “Believe it girls! The legendary Blue was for real!” Said pikachu smiled smugly as he could while being adored by his fans.

Ash chuckled, covering his face with his hand. “Please stop stroking his ego. It’ll only make him worse.”

Blue glared at his trainer. “Pikachu.”

Fluttershy blushed. “O-oh my.”

“Is something wrong, dear?” Rarity asked, confused by Fluttershy’s sudden action.

“Oh, oh no! Blue just surprised me is all.”

Ash paled just a bit. “Uh, Fluttershy? Are you able to understand Pokémon?”

She nodded. “Oh yes, it helps me very much when I watch over the little dears at my cottage. I’m… somewhat of a Pokémon caretaker. My cottage is an unofficial daycare. I’ve been trying to earn certification for awhile now.”

“Oh, that’s kinda cool actually,” Ash said with a smile, getting the shy pegasus to turn bashful again. Then Ash remembered why he had asked that. “Oh boy.”

“Pika pikachu pipi pikachu,” Blue told Fluttershy, causing the poor mare to turn redder and redder with each word.

“Oh my goodness,” she whisper-shouted, dropping Blue to the floor so he could pick up his popcorn.

“Everythin’ alright, ‘Shy?” Applejack asked worriedly.

“Oh, uh, mhmm,” she nodded, muzzle still burning red. Ash could see her wings looked they were about to flare out. “Blue has a very, um…”

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘colorful’,” Ash suggested.

“Oh, thank you. Y-yes, Blue’s vocabulary is very, um, colorful.”

The mares all blanched, save for Twilight and Spike, both for different reasons. Twilight was due to her prior encounter with the pikachu, while Spike’s was due to naivete. Applejack’s own muzzle burned a bit with Twilight’s while Rarity gasped. Pinkie and Rainbow both started laughing uncontrollably.

Rarity turned to Ash with an appalled expression. “Blue is… vulgar‽”

“Very much so,” Ash nodded. “We’ve tried to get him out of it, but he’s a stubborn little mouse. Ya can’t change him, no way, no how.”

The mare gave Ash a strange look for a moment. “Excuse me for staring darling, but are you faking an accent?”

“Eh?” Ash said ‘intelligently’.

“Your voice seems to change every now and then. Often it seems like your typical central Equestrian tone, but others… it seems almost… Manehattanite.”

“Ooooooh!” Ash said in understanding, nodding. “I see what you’re getting at. Well, ya see, ya can only hide your roots so much.” He rubbed the back of his head while chuckling. “Back where I come from, I grew up in a place called Manhattan. Similar place you’re thinking of, but… ya know, with humans. In other words, I’m a Noo Yawkah.”

“Pssh, that sounds so forced,” Rainbow said, wiping away a tear from her laughing bout. “Why don’t you show us something really impressive to convince your story is true, huh? I bet you can’t even do it!”

“Aw you challengin’ me, liddle lady?” Ash asked, putting his accent on full force. He stood up and pointed a single finger at her. “‘Cause I ain’ gonna stan’ here and take some smack from a flyin’ pride flag. No one, an’ I mean no one, challenges me and ges away with it, capiche?”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed as her smirk grew. “I. Challenge. You.”

“Fine den,” Ash replied. “I’ll give you da most stereotypical Noo Yawkish ting ya gonna evah hea in yo life.”

“Then bring it on, faker,” Rainbow egged on.

Ash took a deep breath. And then, “EY! I’M WAWKIN’ EERE!” The sudden noise sent Rainbow flying backwards a bit, crashing her back against the far wall. The others were all trying to make sure their ear drums hadn’t burst.

“Okay, I’ll admit,” Rainbow groaned, slowly sliding down the wall. “That was pretty good.”

Ash chuckled with a bright smile. “Don’t worry, Rainbow,” he said, toning down his accent. “Just gotta respect the homeland. Bet you know the feeling.”

She smirked, getting back up in the air. “Heck yeah, I do. Loyalty to your home is something I can respect, dude. Though, it’s still hard to believe you’re supposed to be the great Pokémon champion, Red. No offense, but you really aren’t what comes to mind.”

He sighed, hanging his head. “Yeah, I get that a lot actually. But, I don’t need to look the part, I just need to prove the part.” Ash smirked, flicking his thumb past his nose. “And you’ll be seeing how great I am later today.”

Thankfully, Ash’s little ego building was interrupted when something hard hit his head. “Ow!” he cried, holding the top his head in both hands. “What hit me‽” He looked up and saw a very strange sight, and that’s saying something. It was a small, light green, quadruped Pokémon resembling a tortoise. Its eyes, feet, and lower jaw were yellow, while its body was covered by a brown shell with a magical propeller strapped on. It looked right at him with a smile.

“Turtwig!” it said.

“Tank! What have I told you about landing on other ponies? It’s not very nice and you could get yourself hurt!” Rainbow scolded.

“Turtwig,” Tank replied, flying up and nuzzling his owner.

‘A turtwig?’ Ash thought to himself, easing the new bump on his head. ‘That’s a little surprising. Would have thought it to be a squirtle or something.’

“Sorry about Tank, Ash,” Rainbow apologized. “Sometimes he just drops out of nowhere.”

“No problem,” he waved off. “It’s nice to meet your little Pokémon. But if he’s here, does this mean all of you brought a-” Before he could finish, something suddenly clamped on to his hand. Ash looked down to see resembled a bipedal, blue crocodile with red spines on its back and tail, though the spine on its back was larger with additional ridges. It had a large head with ridges above its eyes with much of the head's size being composed of its snout and jaws. On its chest was a yellow, somewhat V-shaped pattern that extended to its arms with a line bisecting the pattern. It also had five sharp claws and three toes. Its eyes were red and surrounded by a dark blue or black pattern. He blinked a few times looking at the totodile on his finger. “Why is there a toothless totodile on my finger?”

Pinkie giggled before grabbing the Pokémon. “That’s just how Gummy says ‘hello’! It also means he likes you!”

“Oh… well, that’s nice.” ‘Yeah, a totodile definitely suits her,’ he thought ruefully. ‘The perfect playful Pokémon.’

“Sorry about all this, Ash,” Twilight said with a slight blush. “We really wanted to bring our Pokémon companions to meet you. You’re known throughout history as a Pokémon expert and we just couldn’t resist.”

Ash’s cheeks turned just slightest bit pink. “Aw, you guys just keep buildin’ me up here. But sure, I wouldn’t mind getting to meet your Poképets.”

“Then if you wouldn’t mind, darling, I would like you to meet my personal Pokémon,” Rarity said, taking out a pokéball. She threw up the half red, half-white ball in the air where it opened, releasing a sparkling blue-white light that shot to the ground and formed its inhabitant. When the light sparkled away, a gray feline Pokémon with a slender physique was sitting there. It had a crescent shaped head with two white-tipped ears along with a white muzzle, a small black nose, pink eyelids, yellow eyes with blue irises, and two rows of thin whiskers. Its neck had a ruff-like fringe, and its legs had similar fringes. Its feet were tipped with white, and had pink paw pads on the underside. It had a coiled, spring-shaped tail and a white fluff at the tip of it.

“Meeow,” the glameow said in a snooty sort of tone.

“This is my sweet Opalescence,” Rarity praised.

“More like evil,” Ash overheard Rainbow whisper to Applejack who chuckled. He chuckled under his breath a little.

“Very nice, Rarity,” he complimented. “I can tell she’s well taken care of. And recently groomed as well.”

She stuck her nose high in the air with a grin. “Of course! My little Opal gets only the best of treatments.”

“Meow,” said glameow added boredly.

Ash smirked at the Pokémon’s response before something kicked him in the shin. “Ack! What’s with things hitting me today?” He looked down to see a small, bipedal, rabbit-like Pokémon with brown ears that were curled up. It had two types of fur covering its body: a light tan fleece that covered much of its lower body, feet and the tips of its ears, and a smooth chocolate colored pelt on the upper half of its body. It had a small, triangular pink nose, pink paw pads on the undersides of its feet and small tan spots above its eyes. To top things off, it had a small brown puff of a tail.

“Oh, Angel, there’s no reason to hurt a friend like that!” Fluttershy cried.

“Angel?” Ash whispered, looking at the buneary. Outwardly, he simply looked confused, while inside, he was laughing up a storm. ‘It has to be poetic justice that Angel is a rabbit that is commonly considered to be effeminate! It’s just too good to pass up!’ “Cute little, fella,” he finally replied. The Pokémon gave him a glare before pointing a paw at its own eyes then at Ash’s. ‘Sure ya will, dude. Sure ya will.’

“Ah s’pose might as well let the ol’ girl out to run too,” Applejack said, sending out a pokéball of her own. Out of the ball came a quadruped, canine Pokémon. It had orange fur with black stripes along its back and legs. The fur on its muzzle, chest, belly, and tail was cream-colored, as well as an additional tuft of fur on top of its head. Its coat was noticeably longer on its chest and tail, though. It had gray eyes, a black nose, and large, round ears too. Its forepaws had two visible claws, while its hind paws have three toes each, and each paw had a brown pad. The growlithe let out a happy bark, wagging her tail as she saw everyone.

“A growlithe, very nice,” Ash complimented. “Loyal, brave, strong, just the perfect well-rounded Pokémon for farm life. Save for the fire attacks that could burn everything down.”

Applejack chuckled. “Well, we had a few issues while she was a pup, but Winona’s gotten better over the years. Haven’t you girl? Who’s a good girl? Who’s a good girl?” The growlithe barked happily at her trainer, wagging her tail even faster.

“That just leaves me, I guess,” Twilight said, taking out two pokéballs and releasing her Pokémon. The first was an owl with brown plumage and a darker brown triangle pattern of feathers running down its chest. Its wings and wedge-shaped tail were dark brown, while the underside of its wings a light brown. It had bushy, cream-colored feather 'horns' that look similar to a trident or eyebrows. The ring pattern around its red eyes and its talons were cream colored, and the beak and talons were light pink. The other Pokémon was a different story. It was a quadruped Pokémon similar to a dinosaur with blue-green skin that had darker patches. It had a short, rounded snout with a wide mouth where two pointed teeth protruded from its upper jaw, and it had narrow reddish-purple eyes. On top of its head were pointed ears that were black inside. Each of its feet had three claws on them as well. The bulb on its back was a large pink bud with a short brown trunk surrounded by leafy green fronds supporting it.

“Okay, the noctowl makes sense, considering your nature for knowledge and wisdom, Twilight,” Ash began, pointing at the owl. “However, I’m a little lost with the ivysaur.”

“Oh, Ivy was a gift from a good friend. I just couldn’t turn him down, so he’s been another assistant around the library. He and Spike help me out during the day, while Owlowiscious,” she indicated the noctowl, “keeps things tidy at night, as well as whenever I’m running an all night study session.”

Ash chuckled as she blushed of her own admittance. He looked over to Spike who was awing over the many Pokémon. “What about you, Spike? Don’t you have a special Poképet?”

“Huh?” Spike said, only realizing then he had been staring. “Oh,” he looked a little depressed. “Uh, no, I don’t. I’m not old enough for my own Pokémon just yet.” Then a fire lit in his eyes. “But I will be soon! On my tenth birthday I’m gonna get my own Pokemon and show everypony that I can be the best trainer around!”

“Woo!” Ash cheered, clapping for the little guy. “That’s what I like to hear! Say, tell you what Spike, after I beat the Elite Four and get my title back, how about I come back to Ponyville with you guys. I’ll show you everything I’ve learned in being a trainer.”

Spike’s eyes practically gleamed with excitement. “Y-you mean you’ll become by teacher in Pokémon training‽ You’ll take me under your wing‽ You really mean it‽”

“Sure thing, little dude, cross my heart,” Ash said, using two fingers to draw an ‘x’ across his chest.

“Now hold on there, boys,” Applejack said. “Aren’t cha gettin’ ahead of yerself there, Ash? Ya don’t even know if yer gonna beat the Elite Four. What if ya don’t win?”

He smirked. “Then I’ll still take Spike on as a pupil. But I don’t have any fears. Even if it’s not today, I’ll get my title back. Just you watch!”

“Speaking of which,” Twilight said, looking at a pocket watch she had on her. “We’ll want to grab some lunch now if we’re gonna make it to the arena on time.”

“Then lez go!” Ash cried, getting to his feet while Blue clambered up on to his shoulder. “Allons-y, little ponies!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie cheered, following Ash with the others, before leaning over to Rarity. “What’s ‘allons-y’ mean?”

After a group lunch where the eight of them shared a few more laughs and few jabs at one another, they departed for the castle arena. Ash had remembered all those years ago when Canterlot Castle was being planned on how much thought was gonna be put into the arena. It would be a grand place where only the greatest of battles would take place. He couldn’t wait to see how it had turned out. It only got him more excited for everything that would happen during his matches.

He bid goodbye to the girls and Spike as they headed for the stands. Twilight had told him that while the match was gonna be broadcast all over Equestria and beyond, it would only have them and a couple other higher nobles in the stands. They would be the only support Ash had on this, but that was all he felt he was gonna need.

Ash walked up to the entrance to the arena where a white coated mare with deep brown hair up in a bun was waiting at a strange machine. She bowed to Ash before smiling at him. “Hello, I am Raven and I’ll be registering your Pokémon for this challenge. You’ll be allowed a total of six, no substitutions. I will also be your referee for the challenge.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Raven. And I already have my six Pokémon planned.”

She nodded in understanding before gesturing to the machine next to her. It was right at her head in height and had a few slots for pokéballs built into it while the screen and typepad was hidden from Ash’s sight. “Please place your chosen Pokémon into the slots and we’ll get them registered for your challenge.”

Ash complied putting putting three normal pokéballs, one that was blue with two red stripes on it, another that was black with a yellow letter ‘u’ detailed into it, and the final was completely red that was curved inward at the side middle. The machine whirred for a moment as Raven went over the details on the screen. It dinged after a moment and Raven nodded to Ash.

“You’re all set and good luck, Mr. Ketchum. There’s a lot of ponies waiting to see if the legends are true.”

“Heh, no pressure right?” he chuckled, getting a small laugh out of the mare too. He grabbed the pokéballs and clipped them to his belt. “Let’s do this!”

Raven led him past the machine and through a sliding metal door. After walking through, Ash was in complete awe. The Pokémon arena had turned out better than he had hoped. It was absolutely massive, reaching high up above his head and the other end of the stadium had to be at least a football field away. Along the sides were twin sets of stands, which on the left he spotted his seven new friends sitting just high enough to be able to see everything, yet still be able to be heard by those on the field. The field itself was a sandy dirt that reached across to the other end. Princesses Celestia and Luna were sitting on twin thrones high above the stands, looking down on everything.

Ash took his position in chalked out box as Raven headed for the referee stand. She set up a microphone in her ear and spoke clearly. “Welcome everypony!” the moderate crowd cheered, while Ash was sure everyone at their homes were already sitting on the edge of their seats. “To what is sure to be a historic day in Equestrian history!”

‘She certainly knows how to milk the situation,” Ash thought ruefully before Raven continued.

“Today, a brave and mighty challenger has stepped forward to face the Elite Four and take on the Princesses for the title of Equestria’s Pokémon Champion! Please welcome back after eleven hundred years of rest, Ash Ketchum, also famously known as the legendary trainer, RED!” The crowd roared at that, allowing in audience cheers from around the nation through the speakers. Ash smiled and waved as he saw the pegasus ponies flying around with cameras, as well as a few flying types about for more footage.

“To start this amazing set today, we welcome to arena the stallion of steel, the platinum pony punisher, Equestria’s number one eligible bachelor himself, Prrrrrince! ….BLUUUUUEBLOOOOOD!”

On the opposite side of the arena, a pure white stallion walked into view as the crowd, shaking his expensively styled blonde mane. He threw a rose into the crowd, several young mares jumping at it and fighting over who would get to keep the flower. He looked at Ash with a bright smile. “Greetings, Ash Ketchum. I am eager to see how I can stand up to the great legend himself. Do give me a proper battle, alright?”

Ash smirked. “Oh, you want a battle, eh?” Blue climbed down his shoulder, looking smug as he sat at Ash’s side. Ash pulled out a pokéball and held it at the ready. “I’ll give you a battle!”

With the first round of the Elite Four confrontation underway, how will Ash hold up against Prince Blueblood? And what surprises do the other mysterious members of the Elite Four have in store for our hero? Stay tuned to find out.

IV - EQG

Chapter Four: Friendship

*One Retelling of a Movie Later*

Serena was quiet as she she stared at Sunset, who was looking away from the other girl with her head hung.

“Wow,” Serena finally said after several minutes of silence. “A she-demon. You turned into a raging she-demon.”

“Yup,” Sunset muttered, pulling in her own legs into a hug. It had taken a good two hours for her to fully explain everything that led up to her current predicament in this world, so the two had made themselves comfortable on the couch. The TV had only been put on mute, the pictures being the only light in the room now.

“That’s just… wow. I… I really have no words right now. Just… wow.” Serena laid her head back against the couch, looking up at the pale ceiling. “That… that must have been something.”

“Yeah, something horrible,” Sunset added. “Pretty much everyone hates me now because of it. Not even my new ‘friends’ are all that comfortable yet. Not that I can blame them.” She sighed and turned to look at Serena. “And, like I said, the portal closed that night. It won’t open again for another thirty moons.”

Serena nodded, heart heavy with disappointment. Save for that one silver lining. “It doesn’t matter when it opens.” Sunset looked surprised, but Serena continued. “I finally found the way back to Equestria. I’ve walked these lands a long time, another few years in a peaceful town won’t hurt.”

“Speaking of ‘walking these lands’, how did you end up here anyway?” Sunset asked, adjusting the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. “I thought the mirror was the only way to this world, so how is it you’re here?”

A humorless chuckle escaped Serena’s lips as her staring began to drift past the ceiling and into her memories. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me,” Sunset suggested.

Serena let out a long sigh, a weight filling her voice, ancient one at that. “I guess if we’re gonna be friends, might as well let there be no secrets between us.”

“Friends?” Sunset asked, blinking a little.

A smile spread across Serena’s lips. “It doesn’t take a magical rainbow cannon to get friends. Sometimes it just takes a common interest.” Sunset had the decency to look embarrassed before falling silent. Serena let the silence hang for a few moments. “It started a long time ago. A long, long time ago on Equestria.” Serena could see the memories as clear as day in her mind; faces of friends long gone, pictures of experiences almost forgotten, and of a special someone that was always on her mind. “My… friend, Ash, and myself used to help Celestia and Luna keep Equestria in harmony with Pokémon so that two never fell out of balance. But there were three dangerous beings that wanted to disrupt our harmony and bring about a new age of darkness. These were the sirens.” Images of three seahorse like creatures filled her mind, envisioned with glowing red eyes and razor sharp teeth.

“Sirens?”

Serena nodded. “Three beautiful yet dangerous creatures that fed off of negative energy. They began to spread dissent and corruption throughout our lands. Ponies began fighting with each other and the Pokémon along with anything they could get their hooves on. The more negativity the sirens fed on, the more powerful their manipulative dark magic became.” She shook upon remembering some of the scenes she had witnessed as a result of their magic. They still pained her heart to that day. “Their threats just became too much so we had to stop them. Ash had always believed they were after something more than just power, but we never put much into the theory. Until we finally caught up to them and discovered what they were really up to.”

“Which was?” Sunset asked, enthralled as much as a filly hearing an epic adventure tale.

“They were trying to take enough negative energy to revive an ancient Pokémon that was best forgotten to time. One with terrible powers that would destroy all.”

Sunset’s eyes were wide, her voice slightly stuttering, “W-what kind of Pokémon c-could do that‽”

Serena looked right into Sunset’s eyes, her own showing ancient horrors. “Yveltal,” she said with a hollow voice. “The Pokémon of death.”

“D-death‽”

Serena nodded regretfully. “Those three worshipped Yveltal as their god and wanted to free him from his ancient imprisonment. However, Celestia, Luna, Starswirl, Ash, and I confronted them before they could do so.” Memories flooded Serena’s mind of fierce beasts in battle against two determined humans and three powerful ponies. “The sirens had grown powerful enough to sway some of the most powerful Pokémon to their side, which held us back severely. We only had one shot and that was a new spell that Starswirl had developed-”

“Starswirl?” Sunset interrupted. “As in the Starswirl‽”

“It’ll make sense in a moment,” Serena promised. Sunset huffed, but allowed her to continue. “As I was saying, Starswirl had created a spell that could banish beings to another world where the threats would be drained of their magic. The four of us bought the old unicorn time to cast the spell, fighting harder than we ever had. Ash and I had our most powerful Pokémon battling at the head, trying to take down their leader while Celestia and Luna focused on the other two. I remember the winds blowing fiercer than they ever had, the waves of the ocean crashing down from several stories up, and lighting flashing all around-”

“The weather was that crazy from your battle‽” Sunset spoke out again, her eyes wide.

Serena only nodded. “Those three had done what was unheard of: they took control of the Earth Mover and the Water Riser.”

Eyes wide, Sunset couldn’t help but suck in her breath. “Kyogre and Groudon.”

Again, the other girl nodded. “They made two peaceful Pokémon rise up and attack their own world. And the five us were the only ones with the powers to take them down. Every attack could have been a death sentence in and of itself, but that didn’t stop us. We couldn’t let them revive Yveltal at any cost. For every Hydro Pump fired at us, we put up an equal Fire Blast to turn it into harmless steam. Every Earthquake countered with a Magnitude. For what felt like hours we put everything we had into defending our home. Finally, Starswirl sent out the call that the spell was ready. As best we could, we surrounded the sirens and Starswirl cast the spell. Above those three demons opened a tear in the fabric of space and time; a portal to another world. It’s power was immense and easily caught the sirens in its vacuum like pull, ripping them and the ground they stood upon up into the vortex.”

“So they were banished?” Sunset questioned, now clutching one of the couch pillows to her chest as she hung on every one of Serena’s words.

A long, deep sigh escaped Serena’s lips as her eyes darkened from the memory. “If only it had been so easy. The sirens wouldn’t go without claiming some kind of victory. The leader used her long, fish-like tail and slammed it into the ground in front of Ash and myself. His Charizard thankfully was able to grab to him safety, but my Gardevoir was unable to keep us safe. She did get us both out of the way of the shrapnel and debris, however we were also caught in the pull of the vortex.” Serena stopped for a moment when Sunset let out a gasp. “The two of us tried our hardest to grab onto something that would have kept us from getting sucked in, but there was nothing but open air. Ash tried to get Charizard to come after us, but Celestia, Luna, and Starswirl stopped him with their magic and their bodies, trying to also grab Gardevoir and I out of the air. The sirens wouldn’t allow it; using their tails again, they wrapped around me and pulled me into the vortex.” A lone tear fell from Serena’s eye as her fists clenched on her knees. “I can still hear Ash calling my name, his voice strained to a hoarse sore, as I reached out to him.”

Serena felt a warm touch on her shoulder, looking up to see it was Sunset of course, her eyes bright and moist. There were no words between them, but it was enough. After a silent few moments, Serena continued. “When we arrived on this world, the sirens weren’t quite quick to adjusting to their new bipedal forms. That, along with a quick attack burst from my Gardevoir, gave me the chance to slip away and head out into the world. I ran as fast as I could, no plan in my mind other than to get away from those monsters and find a way back to Equestria. I was lucky to find a few spots where I could lay low for a while, but they always found me somehow. Either through bribery or using their now heavily limited magic, they always caught up and I was forced to move again. I forget how many times I’ve run around this planet, doing what I could to survive without destroying myself. I worked hundreds, if not thousands, of odd jobs to get by, even resorting to theft when I was desperate. I forget exactly how long I’ve been on this world, but if I would have to guess, it’s been at least a thousand years.”

“A thousand years‽” Sunset practically screamed, accidentally jumping back from Serena. This was a mistake on her part as their was little to no couch behind her, making her end up sprawled out on the floor beside her couch.

“You alright?” Serena called out, sitting in the same spot she was with a blank look on her face.

Sunset groaned, rubbing her head and back as she sat up on the floor before leaning over the couch arm. “Yeah, I’m good. But seriously‽ A thousand years‽” Serena could only nod, her eyes closed. “Holy Celestia. A thousand freaking years. And I thought my story was farfetched.” A snort escaped from Serena, making Sunset roll her eyes. “Hardee har har. That joke has been done to death even before your time.” She went quiet for a moment as the gears in her head started to move around from the tale she had just been told. “Wait… the princesses, Starswirl, a charizard, and a lost love…” Her eyes went wide, pointing a finger at Serena as she backed away a bit. “You’re Green!”

“Excuse me?” Serena inquired with a bewildered look.

“Green! The… oh, just hold on.” Sunset got up and went down the hall to, supposedly, her room and start rustling around inside. “Oh I know it’s around here somewhere,” Serena heard Sunset say to herself as it sounded like she was tearing her room apart. “Aha!” She came back out of her room, carrying a big, dusty book that she slammed on the coffee table (Serena was thankful the table was just wood and not one of those fancy glass ones).

Serena leaned over and read the title aloud, “Legends of Equestria: Tales and Trials of Yore? What is this?”

“Required reading for Mythology 101 back at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” Sunset said with a smirk. She opened the book and started flipping through it. “Ah! Here, it is!” She passed the book over in front of Serena, pointing to the page she turned to. “‘Red and Green were two of the greatest Pokémon trainers to ever exist in Equestria. Legends claim that these two helped shaped modern relations with these strange creatures, in a sense bringing ponykind and Pokémon together. Red was the greatest trainer who is claimed to have created the original Pokémon league and Green is credited with bringing into the eventual existence of contests and the Grand Festival that ponies look forward to every five years. Not much is known about these trainers, save for their tragic end where Green mysteriously vanished, leading Red to stand at the edge of Equestria, staring into the horizon as he waited for his love to return to him. Standing there for days on end, never moving, he watched and waited, until one day turning to solid stone that forever waited there. It is believed this is the same statue that currently resides in the Canterlot Gardens, but there are no credible records to account for this, leading the legendary trainers surrounded in myth and rumor.’” Sunset closed the book looking at the now wide eyed Serena who had a hand clamped over her mouth. “You’re Green, the trainer who created contests and was partners to my hero, Red. I can’t believe it.” Sunset sat down on her rear, shaking her head before putting it against her hand. “I’m actually meeting a living legend. The Green, right here in my home and now my roommate. Un-freaking-believable.”

Serena was silent, just staring at the now closed book. “I’m a legend,” she said just above a whisper.

“What was that?”

She looked up at Sunset. “I’m actual legend. All this time, ponies didn’t forget about me.”

A smile formed on the former-pony’s lips. “Of course not. Contests are just as, if not more, popular as back then. Heck, when I left Equestria, there was talks of starting Pokémon musical competitions as well, even possible movies. You helped bring about the world I grew up in; a world where ponies and Pokémon are together as partners. Even if you are a legend, Equestria owes its future to you, Gre-er, I mean, Serena. So, thanks for that.”

Serena stared at Sunset for a moment before she smiled back. “Thanks, Sunset. It’s nice to hear that from a friend.”

Sunset blinked for a moment. “Friend? You mean, you actually want to be friends with me‽ After everything I told you‽” A simple nod and a smile was what she got in return. “Wow. I… I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. It’s what friends do.”

“Friends…” Sunset chuckled just a bit, shaking her head again. “This is way too wild.”

“Trust me, you don’t know wild until you’ve been chased around the world several times over.” She and Sunset both started giggling at that snide remark. “So, what kind of a trainer are you, Sunset? You mentioned Ash is your hero, but you didn’t go too much into that.”

“Red is my hero,” she clarified. “I’m betting Ash is quite different from how he’s portrayed in the legends as ‘Red’. That doesn’t really answer the question, though, does it?” Sunset moved to the couch, laying back and looking at the ceiling in thought. “I like to think I’m a pretty good battler. A good fierce battle to get me pumped and have that fire burning inside of me.”

“So does that mean….”

“Yep!” Sunset nodded, smiling. “I’m a fire-type trainer!”

“You actually have fire-types? But those are only found in volcanoes and in the Dragon Lands of the south.”

Sunset chuckled. “Yeah they are! Took me years to get the ones I have. And they burn hotter than any other Pokémon out there! In a Pokémon battle, I’ve only ever been defeated by Princess Celestia herself!”

“Really?” Serena questioned with an eyebrow quirked and a sly smile on her face. “I might just have to be added to that list of those who defeated you.”

“Wait, what?”

“Sunset Shimmer, I challenge you to a Pokémon battle!” Serena declared, standing up in the same motion. Sunset could only stare off into space as Serena smiled at her.

With the declaration of this challenge, has Serena put friendship on hold to relive an old rush? Or does the legendary “Green” have something else up her nonexistent sleeves? Stay tuned to find out.

Author's Note

Little shorter than I would have liked, but I promise I'm working on the next one as we speak and it's going to be epic!

V - Equestria

Chapter Five: Assertion

When we last left our hero, Ash had just encountered the first member of the Elite Four, Prince Blueblood. With the crowd roaring around him and a smirk on his face, the human was ready to show the world once again why he was the first champion of Equestria. But first, to deal with the so called “Stallion of Steel”.

“Are both trainers ready?” Raven called out to Ash and Blueblood.

“Of course! I am always ready for a challenge,” the prince responded with a smile. Ash heard the mares in the audience swoon, catching a few of them with a hearts in their eyes. Though he swore a familiar posh voice was shouting “boo”. Putting that out of his mind, he smirked at Raven.

“I’m ready to battle! Let’s begin!”

Raven nodded, holding out two red flags in her light raspberry magic. “Trainers! Send out your first Pokémon!”

“You first, your highness,” Ash said with a wide smile.

“Such a gentlestallion,” the prince admired. “As you wish, Red, but you will soon regret such a pleasantry!” Blueblood lifted out a gem encrusted pokéball and chucked it out into the field. “Time for battle, Ferrothorn!” The pokéball opened, releasing a light blue light that solidified into a Pokémon resembling a flattened durian fruit. Its metallic body was covered in thorns, with three black stripes circling its width, the middle stripe having triangular decorations below the eyes., which had green rims, yellow scleras, and dark pupils. There was a green spike at the top of its body, and extending around it were vine-like, long green appendages tipped with spiky metal disks.

“Ferro!” the Pokémon cried out as the crowd went wild. In the stands, the mane six, and Spike, watched on, Twilight and Applejack watching intently. Rainbow and Fluttershy also kept their eyes trained on the field, but not quite to the same intensity as their friends. Rarity was too busy glaring daggers at Blueblood due to what happened two years prior at the Grand Galloping Gala. Pinkie was smiling brightly as usual, munching on a large bucket of popcorn. None of her friends knew how she was doing that, considering there were no snack stands around the field.

“So Blueblood starts with Ferrothorn,” Twilight said to herself mostly. “That thing’s got some good power to it. Certainly not his strongest Pokémon, but it’s stronger than most.”

“Looks well taken care of ta boot,” AJ commented. “Blueblood may be a pompous lout, but at least he can take care of his ‘mons alright.” She looked over to Ash with her eyes narrowed slightly. “But let’s see what Ash has in mind for this.”

“I hope it’s one of the famous ones,” Rainbow said, holding her hooves close in anticipation. “I wanna see something great!”

“You said it, Rainbow!” Spike said, standing on the bench due to his smaller stature. “Go get ‘im, Ash!”

Ash looked at Ferrothorn for a moment before smirking. “This might be easier than I thought,” he muttered, the brim of his hat covering his eyes. He looked down to Blue, who returned the look with one of acknowledgment. Ash looked back up, pulling out a regular, red pokéball. “You’re the one who’s gonna regret that choice, Bluey!” he declared, lobbing out the ball. “Let’s show them who’s the real champion… CHARIZARD!”

The pokéball opened, releasing a draconic, bipedal Pokémon. It was primarily orange with a cream underside from the chest to the tip of its tail, which burned with a sizable flame. It had a long neck, small blue eyes, raised nostrils, and two blunt horns protruding from the back of its rectangular head, where two fangs were visible in the upper jaw. Two large wings with teal undersides sprouted from its back, and a horn-like appendage jutted out from the third joint of each wing. Its arms were short and skinny compared to its robust belly, and each limb had three, white, sharp claws. It had stocky legs and cream-colored soles under its feet. Around its neck was strange, trapezoidal shaped metal necklace with a small orb placed in the center.

Charizard landed on the ground, throwing his head up into the air and unleashed a massive roar that silenced the entire chamber, sending up a cloud of dust as well. His head lowered when the roar ended, a fire raging in his eyes after over a thousand years in stasis. Despite the initial shock, the crowd roared up again nearly as much as Charizard with cheers and whistles. A certain pegasus being one of the loudest among them.

“Dang,” Applejack muttered, her eyes wide. “Ah knew the legends said Red’s Charizard was incredibly strong, but that… that was unreal.”

“I concur,” Rarity gasped, a hoof on her chest. The roar had torn her glares away from Blueblood to stare in disbelief with her friends. “Such a beast and yet, it looks so… divine! I can see the muscles from here! Oh, what I wouldn’t give to meet a stallion that was half as mighty looking! And just look at the jewelry! That beautiful jewelry!”

Spike crossed his arms, grumbling to himself as he looked away. He knew Charizard wasn’t actually a dragon, but it didn’t lessen the sting by much.

Twilight couldn’t help her usual thirst for knowledge, pulling out a red, rectangular device. On the device was several semi-circle ridges spreading inward from the four corners and was split in the middle by a light blue glass. The middle also had two silver lines running parallel, with black semi-circles in the middle, giving it the appearance of a pokéball. Twilight kept the device in her magic, using her hoof to press the center, extending it out to make the central glass larger. She angled the device to look at Charizard, causing a screen to appear in the glass with images of the Pokémon as a female voice spoke from the device.

“Charizard, the flame Pokémon, and the final evolved form of Charmander. Charizard flies around the sky in search of powerful opponents. It breathes fire of such great heat that it melts anything. However, it never turns its fiery breath on any opponent weaker than itself.”

“Ah think that pokédex might finally be wrong there, Twi,” Applejack said, adjusting her hat slightly. “Ah don’t think that Charizard has any problem taking on an opponent, whether it’s weaker or not.”

“I don’t think there is anything that isn’t weak to it,” Fluttershy mumbled, shaking a bit from the power of the fire-type.

Blueblood was one of the few ponies in the stadium that wasn’t completely affected by the flame Pokémon’s ferocity, but it was certainly enough to shake him slightly. “Hmph,” he muttered, adjusting his bow tie. “A mighty looking beast indeed. The legends might have underspoken the power of your Pokémon, Mr. Ketchum, but I will not be deterred!”

“Ferro!” Ferrothorn challenged, glaring at Charizard.

“The first battle,” Raven shouted, holding the flags out. “Charizard versus Ferrothorn… begin!”

“Pin Missile!” Blueblood ordered. The ends of Ferrothorn’s vines glowed white before firing white orbs surrounded in green, arrow-shaped streams of light that went right for Charizard. They impacted on Charizard’s unprotected belly, creating an explosion that covered the fire-type in white smoke.

As the crowd held their breath, Ash smirked under the shadow of his hat. “Pitiful,” he said simply.

“What?” Blueblood asked, only for his question to be answered as the smoke cleared, showing Charizard completely unharmed. “That’s-That’s not possible!”

“Charizard… Flamethrower.”

Charizard huffed before inhaling deeply. In an instant he threw his head forward, opening his mouth with a roar as he released a massive torrent of burning red, white, and orange fire that instantly engulfed Ferrothorn. The fire raged for a moment before dissipating, leaving the thorn pod Pokémon blackened all over with swirls in his eyes.

Raven raised the flag that was facing Ash. “Ferrothorn is unable to battle. The winner is Charizard!”

Once again, the crowd was dead silent, but this time the quiet remained as Blueblood shakily returned his Pokémon to his pokéball. Even the main six (seven) were completely stunned.

“I… I can’t believe it,” Twilight whispered. “Blueblood’s Ferrothorn is easily in the sixties, level-wise. Yet, it was taken out with a simple Flamethrower attack. How strong is that Charizard‽”

“Strong enough!” Rainbow giddily said. “GO CHARIZARD!” she shouted, spawning a fresh wave of cheers from the crowd. Celestia herself held a knowing look in her eye as she looked down on her old friend.

“He hasn’t changed,” she muttered to herself. Luna overheard and nodded along.

“Quite, sister. You might be in for a challenge today, after all.”

Blueblood sucked in a calming breath before taking out another pokéball. “Beginner’s luck.” he muttered to himself, despite knowing that to be far from the truth. “It’s time to battle, Bisharp!”

Out of the pokéball came a bipedal, humanoid Pokémon. It had a round, red and black head, similar to a war helmet, topped with a golden, double-headed axe blade. Its face was primarily yellow with a black outline. The helmet shrouded most of its yellow-and-black face, although its triangular eyes were visible. Resembling shoulder pads, its red shoulders projected slightly over its arms and had a thin yellow line where they met its black torso. It had white, metallic hands that resembled gloves, with retractable, blades attached. Encircling its torso were two blades, which created the impression of a ribcage. Its thighs were red and become progressively thinner as they connected to the knee. Both of its feet were metallic and split down the middle, resembling cloven hooves. though seemed much closer to warboots.

“Round 2 of Blueblood vs. Red will begin!” Raven shouted, flags outstretched. “Charizard vs. Bisharp, begin!”

“You won’t defeat my Bisharp so easily this time, Ketchum!” the prince roared. “Bisharp, Slash!”

“Sharp!” the sword blade Pokémon declared, shooting forward with his left blade extended by white energy. Bisharp approached Charizard without a problem, bringing the blade up for a horizontal strike on Charizard. Just as the attack was about to connect, Charizard’s claw shot out and grabbed the Slash attack, stopping the steel-type cold.

“What‽” Blueblood cried.

Ash smirked again. “Flamethrower.”

“Bisharp get out of there!” But it was pointless. Charizard flame burst all over the steel-blade Pokémon, once again burning the opponent to a crisp. The fire-type dropped his fainted, burnt opponent like nothing.

“Bisharp is unable to battle!” Raven declared. “Charizard is the winner!”

“Wahoo! Two in a row!” Pinkie cried, getting popcorn everywhere as she threw up her hooves.

“Woah,” was all Spike could manage to say, Twilight and Applejack nodding along.

A red light returned Bisharp to his pokéball, Blueblood inwardly seething if the grinding of his teeth was any indication. ‘Keep your cool, Blueblood. You’re a prince of Equestria. Can’t go losing your cool on live television. What would the tabloids say‽’ He took another calming breath and pulled out the next pokéball. “You’re quite the challenge, Mr. Ketchum. But this is where your winning streak ends!” He tossed out his next Pokémon.

Its body was comprised of a golden sword with the blade pointing downwards. The edge of the blade was white and somewhat serrated near the tip. Its single eye, which was purple with a white, linear pupil, sat where the blade met the hilt, where it was surrounded by black coloration. The handle was thick at its base, tapered as it progressed to the end, and was striated. Two cloth-like arms emerged from the sides of the hilt, each one primarily black and ended in lavender, transitioned by a slight whorl between the two colors. It carried an ornate shield in one of its arms.

“Behold! My Aegislash!” the prince proudly declared.

“Oooh, shiny,” Pinkie commented.

“Not once Charizard is done with it,” Rainbow snarked with a smirk.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that Rainbow,” Twilight said, closing her eyes as she recalled her memory of that particular Pokémon. “Blueblood’s Aegislash is incredibly well trained and not so easily-” Her voice was cut off by the sound of rushing fire. She opened her eyes, only to have to rub them again as she saw Aegislash laying on the ground, burnt black, with a swirl in his one eye. “HOW‽” Twilight shouted, having to stop herself from tearing out her hair. “How in the hay is that fire lizard so strong‽”

If Twilight was freaking out, Blueblood was close to having an aneurysm from pent up rage. With his precious Aegislash returned to his Pokéball, he continued grinding his teeth as he resorted to lifting out the next one with magic. “This time it won’t be so easy,” he seethed. “Time for battle, Klefki!”

Klefki was a small, grayish-white Pokémon resembling a key ring with four keys on it. It had a spherical head with a white face and a small, pink oval on its forehead. Two black circles and a keyhole formed its eyes and mouth. Below its head was its pink, teardrop-shaped body with a white marking in the middle. Extending from the top of its head was an appendage, which resembled an old-fashioned key with two wide, blunt teeth. A thin loop surrounded Klefki, and connected at either side of the "key". Hanging from the loop were various keys that this Pokémon had collected, some looking to be made of precious metals. “Klefki,” it cried out cutely.

“D’aww,” several mares in the audience cooed at the little Pokémon.

Blueblood smirked. “This will not be so easy, Ketchum! Klefki is a fairy type as well as a steel type! There will be no easy way to beat her this time!”

“Flamethrower,” Ash said in an almost bored tone. Charizard equally so, barely putting any effort into the flame this time, yet it still knocked the key ring Pokémon out. The mares and Blueblood had their jaws on the ground. Ash smirked. “It maybe a fairy type, but a fire type can still take it down easily. I was around before fairies were considered ‘new’; can’t throw me off that easily, Bluey.”

Clenching down on his rage, Blueblood lifted his next pokéball and lobbed it to the field. “This one should give you plenty of challenge,” he seethed between his teeth. “Time for battle, Klinklang!”

Klinklang resembled four interlocking gears, with six teeth on the smaller two gears and eight teeth on the larger gear. The fourth gear was on its lower side, and was red-topped with a thin, spiked rim below it. The teeth of the smaller gears were a light gray, while their central regions were much darker. The teeth of the larger gear were a medium gray and its central region was darker. The left eye of the smaller gear was a white "X", while its right eye had a black pupil and a white sclera. It had a round green nose and a small mouth. The largest gear appeared to have a face with a black square for its left eye, a black circle for its right eye, and a sharply angled white frown.

“Klinklang,” it droned in a robotic voice.

“Quickly! Use Zap Cannon!”

“It knows Zap Cannon‽” Applejack asked aloud, her eyes showing her surprise more than her voice. “That’s the most powerful electric move there is!”

An orb of electricity with a glowing red center formed in front of Klinklang before the gear Pokémon fired it at Charizard. It shot forward at incredible speed… only for Charizard’s claw to stop it dead just like he did for Bisharp. The claw slowly clenched on the Zap Cannon, before it pierced through the electrical energy, causing it to disperse in an explosion that blew dust right back at Blueblood and Klinklang.

When his sight returned, Blueblood was horrified to see Charizard standing over his Pokémon. “Klinklang, get out of there!” The gear Pokémon freaked upon seeing its opponent so close, attempting to get away. But there was no saving it from Charizard.

“Flamethrower,” Ash ordered, arms crossed over his chest. Fire rained down on the poor steel type, the battle over once again in seconds. Klinklang was succinctly returned to its pokéball.

Blueblood clenched his teeth hard, grinding them together as a vein popped in his forehead. “That is it!” he shouted, fury filling his voice. “I will not be defeated by some old creature that dragged its way on to the field of battle!” He pulled out a solid gold Pokéball and chucked it out to the field. “Now you will face defeat! Time for battle, METAGROSS!”

The pokéball opened, releasing a seemingly robotic Pokémon with a turquoise, disc-shaped body and four legs. The main body appeared to serve as both head and body, and the Pokémon’s overall construction gave it the appearance of a mechanized arachnid. A large, metallic cross was situated in the center of its face. On either side of the cross, a red eye peered out from a space in Metagross's metallic armor. Its four legs were joined to the main body by ball-and-socket joints. While the upper portion of the legs was relatively thin, they were considerably thicker below the knee. Each leg had three short claws on the end and a flat, blunt protrusion extending over the knee.

“Meta!” the iron leg Pokémon cried out, power resonating from its deep voice.

Twilight frowned a bit, watching the field. “Uh oh, Blueblood’s losing control.”

“What else would you expect of such a ruffian,” Rarity said with a flick of her hair and a “harrumph”.

“Thanks for yer two bits there, Rares,” Applejack deadpanned. She shook her head before looking back at the match. “That Metagross there may cause an issue fer Charizard, though. A ‘mon like ain’t gonna be no pushover.”

Back down on the field, Ash had a smirk slowly appear on his face. “So that’s your big number one?” He popped the joints in his knuckles, Charizard mimicking his trainer. “Then bring it on, your highness!”

Raven held her flags aloft. “The sixth match; Charizard vs. Metagross. Begin!”

Blueblood practically screamed at his Pokémon. “Bullet Punch!” Faster than the eye could see, Metagross lept at Charizard, its four appendages glowing a bright red as they repeated struck Charizard at lightning speed. One after another slammed into Charizard’s belly, stopping after what seemed like hundreds of punches. Blueblood smirked, until it fell from his face when seeing Charizard simply looking bored and observing his own claws. “That… that’s not possible. How could that have done no damage at all‽”

“Because it’s a steel type attack, duh,” Spike commented. “Even if it looks like it’ll do a ton of damage, it’s still not gonna do much on a fire type.”

Twilight smiled a bit at her assistant. “You really have been paying attention in your classes.” Spike smiled back, enjoying the praise.

Ash adjusted the brim of his hat with that wry smile still plastered on his face. “You really must not be accustomed to fighting fire types, are ya? Charizard, let’s finish this one up in style. Time for-”

“I won’t give you the chance!” Blueblood cried out. “I will not be made the fool of! Metagross, Psychic!”

“Meta!” Metagross cried, its eyes glowing a bright blue. An outline of the same color formed around Charizard, the flame Pokémon grunting in surprise as his movement was stopped completely.

“Good call on that one,” Twilight muttered. “Psychic prevents the opponent from moving while doing some good amount of damage. Type difference won’t save Charizard from this one.”

“Ah yes, the pinnacle of psychic moves,” Ash said wryly. “Oh whatever shall we do? Charizard?” A fire raged in the Pokémon’s eyes as he stared down the steel type. He started to flex his muscles, struggling to escape the psychic field.

“Don’t even try it!” the prince smirked in confidence. “My Metagross’ powers cannot be so easily overcome from brute force. You might as well surrender now before…. before…” Blueblood’s words trailed off as his confidence was slowly being overridden before his very eyes. A sweat was forming over his Pokémon’s body as Charizard continued to struggle, his arms, tail, legs, and wings slowly breaking Metagross’ hold. “B-b-but how? This isn’t possible. It can’t be possible,” he whispered to himself.

To the utter shock of the crowd, however, it proved to not be so impossible. With a mighty roar, Charizard broke through the Psychic attack, throwing his wings out wide.

Blueblood quickly shook himself from his stupor, knowing that hesitation now would mean the end of the battle. “Metagross, get out of there!” Metagross quickly headed its trainer’s words, levitating into the air and hovering farther away from Charizard.

“Now you’ve gone and ticked off Charizard, Bluey.” Ash smirked, letting a shadow dip over his face thanks to his hat. “Ya shouldn’ta did that. Charizard… Blast. Burn.”

Twilight and Applejack both paled, leaning back in shock. “Did he just say…” Twilight began.

“Blast Burn‽” Applejack finished.

“That’s so awesome!” Pinkie cheered. She stopped and whispered to Spike, “What’s Blast Burn?” Spike faceclawed for an answer.

“Blast Burn is the most powerful fire type attack possible,” Twilight explained, her eagerness to share knowledge averting some of the fear. “But no trainer has been able to get a Pokémon to fully master it.”

“I think Ash is about to break that,” Spike said, leaning closer on the edge of his seat.

Charizard roared, echoing out his power, raising up his fist in the air. It suddenly sparked as an unnatural fire started around the claw; it glowed a burning red, yet was slightly translucent, almost as if created with magic. The fire type clenched his fist tighter before slamming it to the ground, nearly vibrating the whole stadium with the amount of power it released. The stadium went eerily quiet as they awaited for the result of the legendary fire attack. A cracking sound slowly started to pierce the silence, the source of which appearing beneath Metagross.

Blueblood discovered this one second too late. “Metagross move!” he shouted, but there was no point. Metagross looked down, unable to see what was brewing beneath it. This hesitance and lack of reaction time sealed the iron leg Pokémon’s fate. The cracks worsened at an alarming rate, the center of which grew so hot that a large red spot was visible. Just as Metagross began to head its trainer’s orders, the ground below it exploded as a massive column of fiery energy engulfed the Pokémon, blasting to the top of the thirty-some foot ceiling. The pillar didn’t last long, maybe thirty seconds before the energy faded, leaving the ground scarred and scorched, as well as a very well-done Metagross.

Raven raised a flag towards Charizard. “Metagross is unable to battle! The round goes to Charizard, the match won by Ash Ketchum!”

“No!” Blueblood cried, sinking to his knees as he wallowed in defeat.

Charizard let out a roar of victory as Ash returned him to his pokéball. He smiled down at the ball, “Thanks, Charizard. You did amazing.” He clipped the ball to his belt, a small thought running through his head, ‘That metagross had plenty of power behind it. So why is it that Blueblood didn’t release it?’. He shook those thoughts free before addressing his opponent. “Hey Bluey!” The unicorn looked up at Ash, a hint of anger in his eyes, yet still Ash smiled. “That was a great match. Just get better and try again someday! I’ll always take a good challenge again.”

“A good challenge?” Blueblood muttered, looking at Ash with his eyes slightly wider. Realizing he was being praised for his battling skills, the prince got back to his hooves and returned his defeated Pokémon to its ball. “Ah, yes. Yes, it was quite the battle, Mr. Ketchum. I am glad the legend did not speak unwisely of your battling prowess.” He bowed politely, causing the crowd above to finally burst into cheers.

“Wowie!” Pinkie exclaimed as she clapped her hooves. “That sure was fun and super-duper amazing!”

“I must admit, Charizard may seem like a brute, but his attacks! Oh, such flare, such style! It’s getting me all tingly with ideas!”

Applejack rolled her eyes at Rarity. “Always with the clothes, that one,” she muttered to herself. She watched the field, seeing Blueblood make his way off of the field, no doubt heading up to the royal box where the princesses were waiting and watching as well. The farm mare tipped her hat unseen to Ash. “That human sure knows how to raise a powerful ‘mon. Ah don’t think Ah’ve seen such a powerhouse in a long while. Not even Chrysalis’ Scolipede was that strong.”

“Charizard would have roasted that big bug in seconds!” Rainbow declared. “It was so awesome!”

Spike stared down at the battlefield as it was quickly repaired by unicorn magic, his eyes wide and sparkling. “And he’ll be my teacher…” He turned to Twilight, a fire burning in those green eyes of his. “I’m gonna be as great as that, Twilight! You’ll see; once I have my first Pokémon, we’ll get powerful allies and become the strongest trainer ever!”

Twilight smiled with a bit of mirth. “Of course you will, Spike. But your tenth birthday is still a couple months away. Willow doesn’t even have the new starters in just yet. Just keep up on your studies and when it does roll around, you’ll be on your way to accomplishing your dream.”

The dragon nodded with a big grin. “Yes, ma’am! I’ll do my very best!”

She pulled him into a hug with a little giggle. “I know you will, Spike.”

“That’s so cute,” Fluttershy commented, finally coming out of hiding from when Charizard had used Blast Burn. “Little Spikey is growing up!”

Spike’s cheeks instantly flushed, pushing himself out of Twilight’s grip. “Aw come on! Can’t I ever just have one moment without being cutesied?!”

“Enope,” Applejack said with a big ol’ grin, imitating her older brother’s, Big Macintosh, typical speech pattern.

“Dangit!”

“Language, Spike,” Twilight lightly scolded, holding back a few more giggles.

The poor baby dragon’s “suffering” no doubt would have continued had it not been for Raven’s voice echoing once again throughout the stadium. “The challenger, Ash Ketchum, has bested the first of the Elite Four, but now he faces a true power of our world! Please give a grand hoof for the fairest of them all, the beautiful battler, the crystal pony princess herself, Prrrrrrrrrrrincess… Mi Amoré CAAAADEEEENZAAAA!”

The stadium erupted in applause once again, as a comparatively tall, alicorn mare took her position opposite Ash. The mare’s pink fur was clearly well cared for, her tri-color mane and tail of violet, rose, and gold hanging long and curled at the ends. Her light purple eyes looked at Ash with compassion and love, yet he could tell that there was a fire hidden within those orbs. “A pleasure, your grace,” Cadance said with a soft, melodious voice, taking a small bow to Ash.

A slight grin formed on the human’s face. “I can see why the stallions, and mares, go wild for you. That voice alone is as divine as the sirens of myth of my homeland.”

Cadance’s cheeks reddened for a second, giggling lightly. “Oh my, don’t let my husband hear you say that.”

“Too late for that!” an angry male’s voice came from the sidelines. Ash looked over, seeing a muscular, white stallion standing to the sidelines behind Cadance, cerulean eyes glaring back at the former champion. The stallion shook some of his sapphire blue hair, snorting as a bit of anger leaked from him.

“Heh, sorry about that. Only paying a lovely lady her dues. I meant no offence.” The stallion pointed a hoof at his own eyes before pointing it Ash. “And it went right over his head.”

“Sorry about Shining. He gets… protective,” Cadance said in an apologetic tone.

“I can see that. Well, hopefully he won’t mind how bad his wife is about to get beat.” Ash was silent for a moment thinking that over. “That sounded so much better in my head.”

“Yeah, it really did!” Pinkie called out from the stands.

“Anyway!” Raven declared, raising her two flags. “The match between Ash Ketchum and Princess Cadance is about to begin! Are both trainers ready?”

Cadance lifted up a pokéball that looked to be made of blue crystal. “Ready!”

A smirk graced Ash’s lips again as he got pumped for the battle. He looked down at Blue who nodded back with a smirk of his own. “We’re ready over here!”

Raven nodded, raising her flags high. “BEGIN!”

Cadance was first to throw out her pokéball. “Release! Mr. Mime!” The ball opened, releasing a bipedal, humanoid Pokémon with a round, white body that had a red spot in the middle. Its light pink arms and legs were connected to its body by red spheres and its knees had small, white coverings. There were red pads on the tips of its white fingers, and its black feet curled upward at the tips. Blue growths extended from the sides of its pale pink head, and there were red circles on its cheeks.

“Mime!” the Pokémon said with a somewhat high-pitched voice, holding his hands out as if they were pressed against something.

“Go Cadance! You got this!” Twilight cheered, waving her hooves around.

“Jeez Twi, can ya be any more biased on this one?” Applejack chuckled.

“Oh shush! I’m gonna cheer all I want for my sister in law!” She pointed a small glare at Spike, causing the drake to flinch. “You too buster.”

“Yes ma’am,” Spike said with a gulp.

Down on the field, Ash narrowed his eyes with a scrutinizing look at the psychic/fairy type. Ideas and theories ran through his head at incredible speeds until… He reached behind him and pulled out the black and yellow ball. He pressed the central button, returning it to its full size before tossing the ultra ball out to the field. “Come on out, KROOKODILE!”

This Pokémon, this “Krookodile”, had a thick maroon-colored body, black back, and white stomach, its head slightly pointed and containing a distinctive black membrane that surrounded both eyes. The outline of the membrane angled upward sharply, coming to points above the top of Krookodile's head, though it was hard to tell due to . It had five triangular spikes on its back: four around the middle of its back and one large one at the beginning of its tail. Each of the smaller spikes on its back were linked to black, triangular spikes that reached around to its front, slightly overlapping its stomach. The largest spike sat at the beginning of its long thick tail, which had three, thick, black stripes, the last stripe covering the tip of the tail. Its legs were very short and directly attached to its feet, which were wrapped in black and had three white claws facing forward. Krookodile's arms were short and thin with a black stripe around the elbow; its long, thin fingers are each tipped with a white claw.

Its most notable feature was its long snout, containing a black stripe around the bridge, and large pointed nostrils on the end. Four of its rear and two of its front incredibly sharp teeth slightly overlap its lower jaw. Said jaw opened a bit to let it cry out, “Krookodile!” to the crowd as it slammed its tail on the ground in a show of power.

“Ow wowie!” Pinkie said with a wide-eyed laugh. “Now that’s a gator! It could eat up Gummy in one bite!” The pink party pony suddenly stopped at what she said, turning in horror to Fluttershy. “H-he wouldn’t do that, right?” Fluttershy patted her friend’s shoulder comfortingly, no words needing to be spoken to relieve Pinkie of her underserved fear.

“But why a krookodile?” Twilight asked to nopony in particular. “It makes no sense to use a dark type against Cadance. She’s using a fairy team.”

“Maybe it’s because she’s using Mr. Mime?” Spike put in his own two bits. “It is primarily a psychic type afterall. Maybe he thinks she’s a psychic user?”

Before Twilight could reply, Applejack responded with a, “Nuh uh.” Her friends turned to look at the earth pony who was watching the field carefully. “Ah may not know Ash all that well jus’ yet, but he ain’t gonna be fooled so easily. Ah think he knows more than he’s lettin’ on. So les’ jus’ see what the varmint’s got in store.”

“Oh, um, Twilight? Could you pull up Krookodile on your pokédex?” Fluttershy asked. “I’d like to see what it says about him.”

Twilight smiled, eager to share knowledge with her friends. “Sure, Fluttershy.” She pulled out the pokédex and aimed its sensor at the ground/dark type. The pokédex slid open, giving a full three-sixty degrees look at Krookodile as it read aloud the entry:

“Krookodile, the intimidation Pokémon and the evolved form of Krokorok. Very violent Pokémon, they try to clamp down on anything that moves in front of their eyes. They never allow prey to escape. Their jaws are so powerful, they can crush the body of a steel carriage.”

Fluttershy made an “eep” sound at the entry, shaking a bit as she and Pinkie held each other, Pinkie’s fear of the large reptile refounded.

“Another brutish Pokémon?” Rarity asked the open air. “I would have suspected the great champion of Equestria to have Pokémon with a bit more… flare.”

“Flare isn’t going to help in battle, Rarity,” Rainbow scoffed. “Save that for those lame contests you’re always watching on TV. In a battle, brute force is your only true ally!”

Before the girls could converse any further, Raven held her flags high again. “The first round, Krookodile versus Mr. Mime! Begin!”

“You didn’t pick quite the right choice, Mr. Ketchum!” Cadance declared. “Mr. Mime, use Miracle Leaf!”

“Miiiiime!” the barrier Pokémon cried as it summoned a storm of glowing, green leaves that charged forward at Krookodile, each one ready to shred into the intimidation Pokémon. But his trainer wasn’t gonna let that happen.

“Earthquake!” Ash ordered. Krookodile’s tail glowed with a light brown energy, slamming it down on the field. An incredible shockwave shook the stadium, cracking breaking the ground apart. One particular piece jutted up right in front of the ground/dark type, Mr. Mime’s leaves planting themselves in the slab of rock instead of Krookodile.

“Clever boy,” Cadance mused. “But not enough! Mr. Mime-”

“Foul Play!” Ash shouted, interrupting the princess of love. The rock barrier Krookodile suddenly started charging at Mr. Mime, a dark purple energy radiating from behind it.

Cadance was forced to act quickly as the dark type attack encroached on her Pokémon. “Mimey! Use Protect!”

“Mime!” the Pokémon shouted fearfully, sweating as he put his hands out, creating a green barrier around himself. The rock didn’t stop, however, charging right at Mr. Mime. It shattered against the barrier, Krookodile’s Foul Play completely negated by the Protect. But that left Krookodile in a prime position as the barrier faded away.

Ash’s smirk grew as the end play came down. “Krookodile! IRON TAIL!”

“What‽” Twilight practically screeched.

“B-but steel type attacks are…” Cadance said to herself as she came to realization too late. “Mimey! Protect! NOW!”

Mr. Mime attempted to put up another barrier, but it was a fruitless attempt. Krookodile’s tail took on a metallic shine, almost as if the entire powerful appendage became steel. He adjusted his footing slightly before sideswiping at Mr. Mime. The attack hit home, sending Mr. Mime flying into the far right wall, imbedding there with swirls in his eyes.

“Mr. Mime is unable to battle! Krookodile is the winner!” Raven shouted.

Cadance returned Mr. Mime to his ball, whispering to the ball, “You did well, get some rest.” She put the ball away before looking at Ash. “That’s why you sent out Krookodile isn’t it? That Iron Tail attack. It’s your ace against fairy types.”

Ash snapped his fingers with a grin. “Bingo! Krookodile here can match any fairy type, no matter how strong. Ain’t that right, slugger?”

“Krook!” Krookodile cried, flexing his flimsy arms. There was a slight glow to them, but went unnoticed, mostly. A certain farm mare caught the quick glow, narrowing her eyes at the intimidation Pokémon and his trainer.

“Alright Ash, what’s yer game here?” AJ whispered to herself, staring intently at the field.

Cadance gave Ash a bit of a stink eye, narrowing dangerously. “Alright then, buster. Guess I need to kick it up a notch.” She lifted up the next ball, still glaring at Ash.

“Uh oh,” he muttered to himself. “I know that look.”

“You’re boned!” Shining called out with a laugh.

“Shaddup!” Ash replied with a shake of his fist. The stallion nearly fell over in laughter as Ash huffed. “Just get on with the battle already.”

“With pleasure,” Cadance replied, sending out her next crystal ball. What was released was a small, brown bipedal Pokémon with a vaguely ram-like appearance. There was a cotton-like substance covering its back, neck, and forehead. Behind it was a green, star shaped section similar to the area where a plant connected to its produce. It had orange, oval-shaped eyes and green, curled horns, or ears it was difficult to discern. “Let’s get this over with, Whimsicott!”

“Whimsi!” the windveiled Pokémon cried out, looking cute while doing it. Ash swore he heard several mares in the audience “d’aww” at the little critter, including a certain shy pegasus.

“Well this could be a challenge, eh slugger?” Ash said to Krookodile who simply looked back at him, pulling down his sunglass. The look he received from the Pokémon said it all. “Yeah, I that’s what I was thinking. Let’s take them down.”

“Krook,” he replied with a nod.

“The second round, Krookodile versus Whimsicott may now begin!” Raven shouted out.

“Razor Leaf!” Cadance ordered. Whimsicott’s body shuddered for a moment, several leaves shaking out before being lifted by an invisible force. The leaves took on an unnatural shine before flying at high speed in Krookodile’s direction.

For a moment, Ash pondered if Cadance was trying the same thing she did with Mr. Mime only minutes prior, but he knew better than to underestimate an opponent like that. He wasn’t willing to let the alicorn enact any new tactics, either. “Show them your stuff, Krookodile! Iron Tail!”

Krookodile’s tail took on the metallic sheen again as he charged forward at a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for a creature with his body type. What was a surprise to Cadance was that the reptile was heading right into her Whimsicott’s attack.

“What’s he think he’s doing‽” she asked aloud.

“What I like to think I’m good at,” Ash smirked in response. “Winning!” Before she could refute that statement, Krookodile roared. She saw him sliding right into the Razor Leaf, but he turned slightly and used his Iron Tail to sweep the leaves harmlessly away. Cadance gaped, but wasn’t given any time to recover as Krookodile used his swing’s momentum to send him right back at a charge towards Whimsicott. “Do it!” That hesitation of Cadance’s sealed the round as Krookodile’s tail came down hard on Whimsicott, slamming the poor grass/fairy into a small crater in the field, completely knocked out.

“Whimsicott is unable to battle! Krookodile is the winner!” Krookodile flexed again, using his left claw to clutch his right arm as he did so, another faint glow going unnoticed by the opposing trainer.

Cadance’s jaw kept opening and closing a few times before she could finally return to the world mentally, returning Whimsicott to his ball and wishing him a good rest. She took a deep breath before addressing Ash. “That’s some talent there, Mr. Ketchum. You seem to not even need to direct your Pokémon to perform certain moves.”

“Hey, when you live with people long enough, you know how to work together,” he shrugged before chuckling a bit. “Even when it’s only because you have to. My team and I spent years training in synch to be able to battle like this. So come on, princess. Let’s give the audience a show.”

“You’re a coordinator now?” she said with a slight smirk, knowing how some battlers hated being called that. But to her moderate surprise, he actually chuckled a bit, a little sparkle in his eye as he replied,

“I’ve had my experience in the field. You’d have to, to keep up with Serena.” Ash adjusted his hat slightly, casting a shadow over his face.

“Serena?” Cadance asked, her curiosity slightly curiosity piqued. Unseen to her, Luna and Celestia shared an uneasy glance at one another.

“Yeah, the woman I loved. The one that was stolen from me.”

Cadance couldn’t help it if she tried, gasping loudly as she looked on with a gaping mouth and wide eyes at him. “S-stolen‽”

The audience was silent, watching Ash with interest. Within that crowd, several ponies were looking at Twilight now.

“Uh, Twilight, what’s he talking about?” Rainbow asked.

The purple pony princess let out a light sigh. “Do you all recall the legend of Red? Specifically of what happened at the end of his ‘reign’?”

“O’ course,” Applejack nodded. “The legend states that Red stayed at the cliffs of the western coast, starin’ at the horizon for ages until finally turnin’ to stone. What about it?”

“Do you remember why he was standing at those cliffs?”

“Well sure, it was because he lost his… special… some… pony…” Applejack trailed off as she and the others suddenly came to the realization of what Ash was referring to. “Oh mah Celestia…”

“Oh poor Ash,” Fluttershy and Pinkie said simultaneously.

Rarity, being her dramatic self actually started bawling. “It’s so saaaad!” she cried, holding a hankie to her leaking eyes, no doubt more to save as much mascara as she could.

“Ya could never tell lookin’ at ‘im,” Applejack whispered, holding her hat to her heart. Rainbow stayed silent the whole time, keeping her emotions internal.

“Of course not,” Spike said, surprising them all. “What would it do him any good to be sad all the time? From what you told me, Twilight, Ash isn’t just moping about. He’s still trying to live his life. It doesn’t do his special somepony any good if he’s just sitting on his butt the whole time.”

“That’s… that’s a very mature thing to say, Spikey,” Rarity of all ponies commented, her tears subsiding for the moment. Spike puffed up his chest a bit, feeling no reason to push his luck any more than it was. Twilight smiled, though internally she was smirking due to a feeling he was just quoting one of those comic books he could never put down.

Back down on the field, Cadance was trying to fully comprehend what Ash was telling her. “Y-you had the love of your life stolen from you‽”

Ash nodded. “Yes, taken by monsters. One day, I’ll get her back, no matter what it takes. And I’m sorry, Cadance, but the first step is to retake my title as champion of Equestria.”

“But what will being champion give you that could help you get Serena back?” she questioned.

Ash chuckled a bit. “Sorry, but spoilers,” he said with a bit of melody to his voice. “I can’t go giving out a master plan before it’s even begun. Now come on, princess. Let’s get back in the battle!” He lifted his head, discarding the shadow to show a big smile with bright, beaming eyes.

Cadance looked right into those eyes, seeing that tint of sadness lingering, but there was a fire raging that overtook that sadness. A fire set to keep him moving forward to reclaim what he had lost. The alicorn smiled a bit, lifting her next pokéball up. “Alright then, Ash. Let’s! Release! Togekiss!” The pokéball opened, releasing a white, avian Pokémon with an ovoid body and relatively flat face with small, black eyes.. While its feet were small and situated closely together, its wings were broad and triangular. Red and blue triangular markings ran over its underside, and it had a short tail consisting of three feathers. On the back of its head were three spikes: a red tipped on the right, a blue tipped one on the left, and a pure white one in the middle.

“Togekiss,” the Pokémon softly spoke, curtseying the best she could to Ash and Krookodile.

“Pikachu,” Blue commented, crossing his arms.

“Oh hush, Blue,” Ash chided. “She looks quite well trained. Now to put it to the test, eh?”

“The third round, Krookodile versus Togekiss may now begin!”

“Your speed won’t be enough to stop Togekiss!” Cadance challenged. “Fairy Wind!”

“Toge!” the jubilee Pokémon cried as her wings began to glow with a faint sparkling energy.

“Get ready, Krookodile!” Ash called.

“Krook,” he replied, planting his feet on the ground firmly.

Togekiss began to lightly flap her wings, slowly whipping up a small wind. Ash and Krookodile stared down the fairy, waiting for the full attack to finally make its strike. Togekiss’ wings suddenly pulled back farther than they had and she flapped hard, sending out a torrent of sparkling wind that was aimed straight at the reptile Pokémon.

“Now, Krookodile! Earthquake!”

‘What is he thinking? Cadance thought to herself. ‘He of all ponies should know that ground attacks don’t work on flying types.’

Krookodile’s tail once again glowed with the ground type energy, but this time the energy started to extend past the tail as a series of stripe. The ran down to Krookodile’s feet and up his arms to his claws. Krookodile slammed his claws into the ground below, shattering it up on impact that spread out in cracks along the field, though he didn’t stop there. Faster than anypony’s eye could follow, the ground/dark type dug into the ground, disappearing below the stage just as the Fairy Wind blew over the spot he’d once been.

“W-what‽” Cadance exclaimed. “Di-did Krookodile just use an Earthquake to use Dig‽ How is that possible‽”

“It’s brilliant!” Twilight said to herself, quickly making a note of Krookodile’s technique. “Dig is a near essential standard of the sandile evolutionary line, but much more powerful attacks have been known to take its place. Ash decided to teach Krookodile a way to still be able to dig without actually knowing the technique. That’s… that’s…”

“Remarkable?” Rarity suggested with a smile.

“Yes, that!”

Once Fairy Wind had subsided, Togekiss began to look around the field worriedly. “Stay on guard, Togekiss!” Cadance instructed. ‘He has to be around here somewhere…’ A sudden cracking sound drew her attention to below her Pokémon, seeing the ground quickly beginning to split. “Togekiss, get out of there!”

“Toge‽” Togekiss cried in shock as she took to higher air to avoid the sudden attack from her opponent below. Krookodile came blasting out of the underground with a roar, leaping into the air as well.

“Oh no!” Cadance cried.

“Oh yes!” Ash countered. “You know the drill! Iron Tail!” Krookodile’s tail took on the now infamous metallic sheen and slammed the appendage up into Togekiss’ chest. The jubilee Pokémon cried out in a mixture of shock and pain as the force of the strike flung her high into the air, striking the high ceiling of the stadium. The sheer force of the impact was enough to make the crowd wince, even more so when Togekiss fell back down to Equestria, swirls in her eyes and groaning.

“Togekiss is unable to battle! Krookodile is the winner!” Raven declared.

Cadance sighed, returning her Pokémon to her pokéball. “You did well, my friend.” She looked up at Ash and gave him a smile. “Don’t count me out just yet, Ash. You may want to be champion for reasons of love, but that doesn’t mean you’re gonna walk your way through me.”

Ash returned the smile with his smirk, Krookodile returning to his side of the field, the glow on his arms subsiding as he did so. “I would certainly hope so, your highness. Now come on, put those words into action!”

“So you wish!” Cadance grabbed her next crystal pokéball and tossed it up. “Release! Florges!” From the stylized ball came a Pokémon whose green lower body resembled a mermaid's tail; two large leaves blooming on either side of the flukes. Its upper body was white and slender, with sylphlike arms that ended in three dainty fingers; it had two black, diamond-like shapes on each side of its svelte torso. Florges' head was rounded with a pointed, upturned nose and long teardrop-shaped ears, while its dark-colored eyes were framed by lengthy green lashes. Surrounding its head was a large, ornate bouquet of red flowers with four, pink, streamer-like flowers around the edges as well.

“Fleur,” the garden Pokémon softly cried, landing softly on the field with grace and elegance.

Ash let out a soft whistle at the fairy type’s arrival. “Now that’s a contest Pokémon. Beautiful, spectacular, reeeemarkable!” He chuckles a bit to himself before that fire burned brightly in his eyes. “Too bad we gotta mess her up.”

“We’ll see about that!” Cadance called back.

Raven raised her flags. “The next round, Krookodile versus Florges, may now begin!”

“End this fast, bud! Iron Tail!” Krookodile grunted in response, flying forward with his tail charged with the metallic energy.

A smirk formed on Cadance’s muzzle as Krookodile approached. “Grass Knot,” she cooly commanded. Florges’ eyes took on a slight green glow to them, her attack beginning its effect. A little ways away, two small vines punched through the ground and knotted themselves into a loop, right in Krookodile’s path.

“Krook!” he cried, his foot catching in the loop and causing him to fall forward.

“Krookodile! Use the momentum!” Ash quickly called out, a bit of sweat forming on his brow.

The intimidation Pokémon had to act quickly, curling his body as he took the fall. Pain wracked his body as it hit the ground, but the momentum carried him forward still. His body began to roll like that, Iron Tail still powered as he barreled towards Florges.

“Now that’s clever,” Applejack said, watching the match with a keen eye. “Takin’ the forward motion of the trip has made Krookodile into the equivalent of a Rollout attack.”

“Florges stop him!” Cadance cried, surprised and disappointed her Pokémon’s attack wasn’t enough to stop Krookodile.

“Oh no you don’t! Krookodile, Foul Play!” A glint appeared in Krookodile’s eye at his trainer’s plan, his body surrounding in purple energy again. His rolling speed quickly increased thanks to the energy, enough to ram his Iron Tail right into Florges’ body. The speed and power of the attack blasted the fairy type back into the far wall, being cratered into it and instantly knocked out.

“Florges is unable to battle! The winner is Krookodile!”

“Dile,” he smirked, popping a few joints as he returned to Ash’s side of the field, his arms glowing again.

The alicorn of love couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed, staring blankly as she returned Florges to her pokéball. She shuddered slightly, going over all that was happening in her head. ‘Was this what Blueblood felt?’ she asked herself, looking across the field at her opponent. ‘This fear? We’ve worked for years to get this strong. And it’s worthless against this trainer. No,’ she corrected. ‘This legend.’ With a gulp, she raised her next ball. ‘But I won’t give in. I’m still a Pokémon trainer; I have to show that no matter the task, I won’t give up.’ With that resolve burning through her, Cadance lobbed the pokéball out into the field, releasing its inhabitant. What appeared was a purple, bipedal, bulldog-like Pokémon. It had a prominent lower jaw with two long, fang-like growths, while its upper jaw had two smaller fangs. On the sides of its head were flat, curved ears, and a small, black nose. There was a black collar around its neck with two small white markings on it. Around its wrists were two black band markings, and it had a short tail.

“GrrrrranBULL!” the fairy Pokémon growled loudly. Her eyes narrowed on Krookodile and snarled at the ground/dark type. Surprisingly, Krookodile actually backed away a bit.

“What the‽” Rainbow blinked, pushing herself back to a better posture. “Why the hay did Krookodile do that‽ It’s just a granbull!”

“Exactly,” Twilight nodded. “Granbull are one of many Pokémon with the Intimidation ability. When they enter battle, the ability activates, weakening the other Pokémon’s attack power slightly.”

“Which is exactly what might give Cadance the edge she needs,” AJ added.

Returning to the field, Raven raised her flags up. “The fifth round, Krookodile vs. Granbull may now begin!”

“Let’s put as much damage as we can, Granbull! Play Rough!” With the attack ordered, Granbull raced over to Krookodile and lept at him.

Ash smiled at Cadance’s ploy. ‘Play Rough, eh? So Granbull is meant to lower her opponent’s Pokémon’s attack stats. Smart. With Intimidation mixed in, it could do a pretty decent chunk of pain in the physical attack range. Too bad it won’t be enough.’ He adjusted his hat slightly to fit better on his hair. “Iron Tail.”

Cadance was afraid of that, but there was nothing she could do as the metal-encased tail slammed into her Pokémon, smacking the fairy type aside with a yelp, her body landing in a heap with swirls in her eyes.

“Granbull is unable to battle! The winner is Krookodile!”

Krookodile’s arms glowed unnoticed once again as he looked at Cadance with what would be the equivalent of a raised brow. Almost as if he was asking her “Really?”.

Cadance returned Granbull to her pokéball, sighing softly. “Thank you for trying, honey. But that may have just been what we need to win.” She placed that ball away and pulled out her final one. Though this one was different; instead of the blue-ish crystal the others had, this one appeared to be a light pink with a diamond like pattern etched into the crystal.

Ash’s brow quirked at the sight of the odd ball. ‘Now what kind of Pokémon could that contain?’

She hefted the ball in her magic before tossing it out, “Release! Diancie!” A gray, sylph-like Pokémon with a white chest and arms that resembled a dress was what appeared from the ball. It had a headdress which consisted of pink crystals; four short ones cresting along top pointing upward and two long ones on either side of its head pointing downward, with a diamond-cut centerpiece framed by its slim gray ears. A smaller pink crystal was also embedded in the back of its head, and a gold nugget is embedded in its forehead. Its eyes were red with pink irises. A gold crescent circled its neck, with the ends joined by a rhomboid gem. Its lower body resembled a large oblong chunk of stone, with a large pink crystal protruding from it.

The former champion actually did a double take at the sight of the legendary Pokémon. “I don’t believe it. I knew there was a Diancie in connection with the Crystal Empire! I freakin’ knew it!”

Cadance giggled a bit at his reaction. “Indeed there was. Deep beneath the palace, we discovered a long lost cavern filled with carbink and this Diancie protecting them. Upon a… certain event occurring, the two of us bonded and became partners. And now, the two of us are gonna take you down!”

“Cie!” Diancie added with the same fire in its tone.

“Really?” Ash said with a hint of interest. “Ooh, I’m getting fired up! Ready Krookodile!”

“Dile!” the Pokémon responded in kind.

Raven nodded to both trainers. “The next round, Krookodile vs. Diancie shall now begin!”

“Iron Tail, Krookodile!” Krookodile surged forward with his metallic appendage once again, clearly intending to end the battle before it had even begun.

However, Cadance had other plans. “Not this time, Ash! Diancie, Trick Room!”

Diancie’s little hands started to glow with a crystalline energy, throwing its hands to the ground. From there, the energy spread out over the field, covering it and the trainers before extending up and in, forming a glass-like box around the battle.

Cadance smirked before calling out, “Now Diancie, Diamond Storm!” Diancie’s hands once again glowed with energy, only this time it was a pure pink. She spread its arms, the energy condensing into many different diamond-like shards that shot out, striking right into Krookodile.

Krookodile cried out in pain, being forced back from the sheer numbers and force of the Diamond Storm. The intimidation Pokémon did not look happy at being stopped like that. Nor did his trainer, who was slightly grinding his teeth.

“Trick Room. Just had to be Trick Room,” he muttered.

“U-um, Twilight?” Fluttershy spoke up. “Wh-what’s Trick Room do?”

Twilight smiled at her friend as she started to explain. “Trick Room is a special status move that switches up the plays between Pokémon. So long as it’s active, the fastest Pokémon move last, while the slowest move first.”

“An’ based off what Ah’ve been seein’, speed is certainly Ash’s go-to stat,” Applejack added in. “Lessee how he takes this set back.”

At that moment in time, it wasn’t well. “Now, I’m all for strategy and everything, but this,” Ash gestured at the attack surrounding them, “that’s just plain rude!”

“Rude‽” Cadance gaped at him. “It’s legitimate strategy!”

“Yeah well, it sucks being on the wrong end of it, okay?” Ash brought a hand up to his face and rubbed it a bit. “Alright, no more holding back. It’s time to take you down!”

“Oh really?” A smirk appeared on the princess’ muzzle, one of true confidence. “I don’t think so. You see, Diancie is what you would call a ‘wall’. Its defenses have built up significantly over the years where there is no attack that could ever one-shot her. So don’t you… think… you can… why are you laughing?”

Indeed, Ash was softly chuckling under his breath as Cadance had continued speaking. “S-sorry. Just that, well, you’re wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“About the one-shot thing. You see, at the start of the battle, you’re absolutely right. There’s no way Krookodile could have one-shotted your friend here. However, Krookodile has a special trick up his sleeve.”

“And what’s that?”

Ash grinned. “He has the Moxie ability.”

At that instant, two ponies had very different reactions. Cadance paled at the implications, while up in the stands, Applejack had a look of understanding. “That’s what that glowin’ was! The Moxie ability!”

“Moxie?” Rainbow asked. “The hay is that?”

Twilight took over there. “Moxie is an ability that causes a Pokémon’s attack power to increase with each successful victory. Which means...:”

“...Which means Krookodile has been growing stronger with each battle he’s fought,” Cadance unknowingly finished. “That’s why you kept him fighting. Returning him would have removed the stat boost!”

“Yep!” Ash replied with a bright, wicked smile. “And you know what that means.”

Cadance gulped. “That means…” She looked to Diancie who was unconsciously moving back away from Krookodile who was staring down the jewel Pokémon down. She shook her head vigorously. “No. No! Not this time! Trick Room is my win! We’ll just finish Krookodile off before he can attack! Diancie, Moonblast!”

Diancie put its hands together, building a glowing pink energy within them. The energy grew brighter and brighter, condensing into a ball of lunar energy. With all its might, the fairy type fired the attack right at Krookodile.

“Let’s end this, bud! IRON EARTHQUAKE!”

“What‽” Applejack, Cadance, and Twilight all shouted in shock.

Krookodile’s tail began glowing with the iron sheen of Iron Tail before the light brown energy of Earthquake overlaid it. The intimidation Pokémon leaped into the air, narrowly missing Moonblast as it shot off passed. Krookodile performed a small front flip as he headed back down to Equestria, his tail being the first to hit the ground. And what a hit it was. The two energies clashed before melding together; the ground splintered apart at the impact before splashing out like a tidal wave, accompanied with a silver wave of energy that filled the cracks. Once the cracks hit Diancie, it was the end; the two attacks’ energy completely overtook the jewel Pokémon, causing an explosion on impact.

“Diancie!” Cadance cried out. When the smoke cleared, Diancie was on the ground, unconscious with swirls in its eyes.

Raven raised the flag towards Ash. “Diance is unable to battle! The victor is Krookodile! The match goes to Ash Ketchum!”

Ash smiled, snapping his fingers. “Simple as that.” But something bugged at Ash’s thoughts again. ‘Another one with the capabilities to be released. What’s going on here?’

The stands were going nuts at the Ash’s victory, save for two ponies who were too stunned for coherent words. Both Twilight and Applejack were completely gobsmacked by what they had just witnessed.

“What’s up, Twilight?” Spike asked.

Pinkie giggled at their slack jawed faces. “You two look funny!”

Rarity rolled her eyes at Pinkie’s antics before addressing her two friends. “Darlings, you should really close those. Wouldn’t want any, ick, bug types getting in there.”

Applejack was the first to do so, shaking her head to get the blood flowing again. “Sorry, Rares. But Ah jus’ can’t believe it. Ah’ve never seen somepony combine two moves like that.”

“It shouldn’t be possible,” Twilight whispered, finally managing to come back to reality. “There’s no way those two attacks should have been combinable in the first place!”

“Why not?” Spike asked.

“Because they’re… well it’s… it’s just not done!”

“I thought it was a good strategy,” Fluttershy whispered, but when she looked up to see her friends looking at her, she realized she was still heard. This caused her to shrink back behind her mane again.

“Well, I thought it was just awesome!” Rainbow cheered, jumping into the air for a moment. “Two powerful moves for the price of one!”

“It was rather incredible,” Rarity admitted. “Though, it almost seems like cheating.”

“Why would it be cheating? Isn’t a Pokémon being able to use all of its power to the fullest the point of a Pokémon battle?” Spike pointed out.

The girls all stopped for a moment, thinking on those words. Twilight was the first to speak. “You… you do have a point, Spike. I suppose it’s just so surprising to see it actually work like that.”

“Makes ya wonder, though,” Applejack said, sitting back comfortably in her seat. “What else does that feller have up his sleeves?”

As the crowds continued cheering, Cadance recalled Diancie back to its ball, softly whispering it a job well done. She looked up just as Krookodile was returned to his own ball. “That was an exciting match, Ash. I very much enjoyed it. Though, it would have been more so if I had done a bit better.”

Ash tipped his hat to the mare. “Don’t take it too hard, Cadance. It was a fun battle, and I hope the two of us can do it again sometime.”

Cadance smiled, bowing to the human before making her way for the exit. “Keep it up, Ash! Slacking off against my husband won’t do you any favors!”

“Husband?” Ash muttered, watching Shining and Cadance share a quick nuzzle and kiss before the stallion started heading for the trainer box. “Aw crapbaskets.”

With Cadance going up to join her aunts and cousin, Shining took his place opposite Ash. “I was wondering if I’d get my crack at the great legend himself. I’m somewhat glad you did defeat my wife. Though, that just means I have to beat you even worse.”

“That phrasing,” Ash muttered, shaking the bad tasting thoughts from his head. “Well, this’ll be fun.” He chuckled before grabbing a pokéball from his belt.

“Preeesenting, the stallion’s stallion! The protector of Canterlot for many years! The former Captain of the Guard and prince of the Crystal Empire! The Fierce Fighter himself! SHHHHINING ARRRRMORRRR!” Raven shouted above the crowds, Ash noting that there were many, many, female screams in the audience.

‘Somepony’s popular,’ Ash mentally noted.

“Are both trainers ready?” Raven asked.

“Anytime!” Shining said, lifting up a standard pokéball.

“Let’s do this!” Ash responded in kind.

“Alright! The third match, Ash Ketchum versus Prince Shining Armor, shall now begin!”

Shining threw the simple, red pokeball out to the field, “Attention, Poliwrath!” The ball opened, releasing a blue, bipedal Pokémon with muscular arms. It had bulbous eyes that protruded from the top of its head and its belly was covered by a white and black swirl. There appeared to be white gloves on its hands, and it had rounded, digit-less feet.

“Poliwrath!” the Pokémon cried, flexing his powerful arms. Several of the mares in the audience sent up cheers as Poliwrath continued to flex, Shining’s smug smile making all the more irritating to Ash.

“Alright, so you’ve got a Poliwrath, big whoop!” he did his best not to growl. If there was one way to get on Ash’s nerves, it was soaking up praise and being smug about it before there was proof. There was a gasp from the mares and fillies, though Ash focused solely on Shining. “I think we’re gonna have to knock the smugness out of you, bub. Eh, Blue?”

“Pika,” the pikachu responded with a bit of disdain.

Shining chuckled a bit. “Sorry about the fans. They get a little excited when we come out.”

Ash respected that at least the stallion had a bit of humility, but it wasn’t enough yet. “Then I guess we’re gonna have to disappoint them. Let’s get it on, Grovyle!” Ash lobbed his pokéball out, the center opening and releasing a bipedal Pokémon similar in appearance to a theropod dinosaur; its body was primarily green with a red underside and a belt-like green stripe across its belly. Grovyle's hands had two clawed fingers, and powerful legs with bird-like feet; it had three long leaves on its wrists, a large leaf on top of its head, and two tails that had a leafy appearance.

“Grow,” the wood gecko said quietly, placing a small twig in his mouth.

“Uh oh,” Spike muttered. “Looks like Shining is gonna have some issues. Grass types have the advantage against water types like Poliwrath.”

“Don’t count my BBBFF out so early, Spike,” Twilight said with a bit of pride. “Poliwrath is only his way of testing his opponent to see how well trained they are.”

“I dunno, Twi,” Rainbow said, hovering a bit over her seat, much to chagrin to those in the stands behind them. “The way Ash has been battling, I don’t think there’s anything that’s stopping him! Hay, he still has two Pokémon left we haven’t even seen!”

“Two?” Twilight asked.

“Well duh. Blue is down there for a reason after all. Why would the Red leave out his best player‽”

“Dashie makes a good point!” Pinkie added helpfully.

“I suppose that’s a fair assumption. Hmm…” Twilight hummed a little before bringing out a large tome and opening it up to read it..

“What in Celestia’s name is that, Twilight?” asked Rarity.

“It’s an old book on Red and Green. I’ve been looking through it over the past day to see if it had any information on their old teams. Unfortunately it seems to be rather lacking.”

“How so?” asked Applejack.

“It only lists a few Pokémon for Red. Blue, of course, Charizard, Pidgeot, and Grovyle. Krookodile isn’t even mentioned in here, nor are any others that could be possible clues. Just this vague part here saying that Red was in the possession of a cursed Pokémon and an impossible Pokémon.”

“A c-c-cursed Pokémon?” Fluttershy stuttered. “Oh that poor creature.”

“Don’t it have anythin’ else?”

“No,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. She closed the book with a huff. “Drat, I was really hoping it could give us a better hint at what’s ahead.”

“Why don’t you just read ahead like I do, silly?” Pinkie giggled.

Twilight just rolled her eyes. “Nopony can do like you do, Pinkie.”

“Oh, right!” The pink pony just giggled some more as the others returned their view to the match.

“Alright Poliwrath,” Shining called out, “let’s kick this off right! Use Ice Punch!”

“Poliwrath!” the tadpole Pokémon cried. He pulled back his fist as pale blue energy began swirling around it, glowing said color. Fist raised, Poliwrath charged at Grovyle, aiming the attack right for the wood gecko Pokémon.

Grovyle, for his part, simply stood there, chewing lightly on the edge of his twig while his trainer remained idle as well. Said trainer, keeping a close eye on the approaching opponent. It would only be a couple more strides until Poliwrath was on Grovyle, but Ash wasn’t worried in the slightest. And it was time he showed everypony why.

“Grovyle,” he started, taking a slight pause for Grovyle to glance at him, “show ‘em.” The grass type smirked with a gentle nod. He turned back toward the poliwrath bearing down on him, moving his feet into a ready position, and then… he was gone.

In less than a blink, Grovyle was standing behind Poliwrath who was stopped in his tracks, standing still. The wood-gecko Pokémon looked no worse for wear; no damage or change, save for one arm now having a glowing, green scythe blade protruding out from it. The Leaf Blade faded back into the three leaves it was as Grovyle bowed his head.

At that exact moment, Poliwrath let out a soft groan as the damage finally sank in, dropping to the ground with swirls in his eyes.

“Poliwrath is unable to battle, the winner is Grovyle!”

The crowd was stunned into silence, the only ones looking even the slightest unaffected by the display being the two princesses. Shining stared at his Poliwrath in complete shock, his jaw hanging open, mirrored by many in the audience, including his own sister and her friends.

“Wh...what just happened‽” he exclaimed.

Ash simply chuckled he looked at his opponent. “As you may have noticed, friend, I happen to have a lot of speedy Pokémon at my disposal. But you have never seen anything like Grovyle, my fastest Pokémon on land. He’ll dodge, weave, and duck out of anything you send his way. Ain’t that right, bud?”

“Grow,” Grovyle responded with his arms crossed, looking rather disinterested in the bantering.

Shining bristled slightly at the grass type’s bored response, grabbing his next Pokéball in his magenta magic. “Even if he is fast, speed alone isn’t gonna win you this battle. Attention, Hawlucha!” With a push, Shining lobbed the Pokéball onto the field, causing it to open and release his next Pokémon. This one was a small, bipedal bird-like Pokémon with red, cape-like wings that were connected to its tail with green undersides and small clawed hands. It had red chest feathers, a white abdominal area, and legs with small yellow feet. It had a green, mask-like face with an orange stripe down the middle, as well as orange rings around its eyes. It had a small, red beak, and a white patch underneath it also having three orange tassel-like appendages jutting out of the back of its head. Its eyes had black sclera and large yellow irises.

Hawlucha spread his arms and wings out wide with a cry. Again, the mares in the crowd sent out cheers, renewing even more with each new flex Hawlucha performed for them, soaking up the attention.

Ash could feel a tiny vein in his forehead pulsing more than usual as he watched, very glad his hat hid his forehead well. “Well… someone likes attention. Are all your Pokémon like this?”

“A few,” Shining admitted with a shrug.

“Well, this will be very...I’m not sure theraputic is the word, but what the heck. Let’s go with it. Start the round.”

“I was getting to it!” Raven huffed, her cheeks slightly pink. She raised her flags as she let out a soft breath. “The second round, Grovyle vs. Hawlucha is about to begin! Now!”

“Don’t give them a chance this time! Use Flying Press!” Shining quickly ordered. Hawlucha cried in acknowledgement, jumping high into the air with his wings spread wide. He glided right over Grovyle as his body was outlined in a white energy. As quickly as he rose into the air, he came crashing down, intending to land directly on Grovyle.

“He can’t avoid this one!” Twilight exclaimed with a small smile on her muzzle. “Flying Press is a special move that is both a fighting and flying type attack! One hit with that and Grovyle takes massive damage!”

“I don’t think that’ll be an issue,” Rainbow said smoothly.

“Oh? And why’s that?” the purple pony princess asked with a raised brow.

“Because Grovyle doesn’t seem to have an issue with what’s happening.”

Dash’s words were true as Grovyle stood stock still, just casually watching Hawlucha above him, fastly approaching.”Grow,” he idly mused. He tilted his head slightly to glance at his trainer, a small question in his look. All Ash needed to do was nod before a small smile crossed the wood gecko’s mouth. He bit down slightly on his twig before once again disappearing from sight, moving faster than anypony could see.

Hawlucha gasped in shock before feeling a weight on his back. The wrestling Pokémon glanced back to see Grovyle kneeling there, getting a two-fingered salute with a smug look from the grass type.

“H-how did-?” Shining started before he was interrupted by his opponent.

“X-Scissor!” Ash called out. Grovyle jumped above Hawlucha’s back, pushing the fighting/flying type closer to the ground, and performed a backflip as the leaves on his arms merged into twin, light-green blades of energy. Grovyle quickly aimed himself down and sped forward as he crossed his blades on Hawlucha’s back, getting the Pokémon to cry in pain as the two slammed into the ground, kicking up dust from the impact.

“Hawlucha!” Shining cried in shock and worry, watching the dust clear. Grovyle stood up from the crater he created from Hawlucha’s body, checking over his opponent before stepping off of him and moving to his own side of the field.

As Grovyle reached that point, a moving of dirt alerted him to looking back at Hawlucha who was kneeling in the crater now, glaring Grovyle down with a fire in his eyes. In a normal situation, Grovyle would have simply ended the battle there, but the passion for the battle he could see in Hawlucha’s eyes made him rethink a quick victory. Instead, he smirked turning to fully face the fighting bird and getting into a defensive position. Grovyle gestured with his hands for Hawlucha to come at him.

“What is he thinking‽” Rarity gasped at the display. “Why on earth would he give his opponent another chance to attack him‽”

“Because he recognizes Hawlucha.” Of all ponies, it was Fluttershy who had spoken up. Her friends all turned to the pegasus who was staring raptly at the battlefield.

“Whaddya mean, ‘Shy?” asked Rainbow, more than a little surprised at her friend.

“Grovyle sees Hawlucha as another battler; an equal. He wouldn’t disrespect Hawlucha with a quick defeat like that.” Fluttershy gently pressed her hooves together in a silent prayer. “Grovyle will allow Hawlucha his honor.”

The girls, and Spike, weren’t too sure what Fluttershy meant, but they turned back towards the fight, hoping it would be the solution to their questioning.

Ash couldn’t help the smile on his face, seeing Grovyle like this. ‘This might be a better battle than I thought. Shining may have some showboating Pokémon, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fighters. If this is what you want, Grovyle, then let’s put our all into this battle.’ “Alright, Grovyle! Let’s show Hawlucha that ol’ fighting spirit!”

“Grovyle!” the grass type cried, his leaves extending into the darker green Leaf Blade.

Shining, who had understood from the first glance what had happened out there, smirked slightly. “You heard ‘em, Hawlucha! Show the former champion what we can do!” Hawlucha cried out as he stood once again on two legs. “Aerial Ace!” Hawlucha’s wings instantly began to glow a bright blue, spreading them wide as he suddenly rushed at Grovyle, who moved in turn.

The two fighters crossed each other, both attacks striking out as the moved by, landing several feet from each other. Both opponents’ energy’s ebbed away as one fell to the ground, landing in defeat as it was clear he was no longer able to fight.

Raven raised her flag as she declared the winner. “Hawlucha is unable to battle! The winner is Grovyle!”

Despite their favorite being defeated, the crowd still cheered for both fighters, having easily enjoyed seeing such an honorable fight. Even Shining couldn’t help the smile on his face as he returned Hawlucha to his Pokéball. “You did good, my old friend. Rest now and your brothers and sister will continue the fight.”

A serene smile graced Ash’s lips at overhearing Shining’s words. “Ya know,” he called out, grabbing Shining’s attention, “I may have judged you too early, pal. You may have a bit of a showy attitude, but it’s clear from Hawlucha that you and your Pokémon are true masters of the craft. Hawlucha had that fighter’s spirit that I haven’t seen in years. So come on, Shiny! Bring that spirit out to its full potential! Gimme everything you got!”

Shining blinked a few times at Ash’s words, truly stunned by the sudden praise of a legend. A smile quickly grew across his muzzle as the next Pokéball was lifted. “You asked for it!” Shining said with a slight chuckle. “This one is my big heavy hitter! Attention, Throh!” The Pokéball opened to release the next entrant, a bipedal, humanoid Pokémon with a bulky, red body and rocky skin. Its head was round and low on its shoulders with a T-shaped black feature that formed its nose and brow. Its hands and feet each had three digits, with its fingers being rounded. It wore a white judogi with a black, v-neck collar that extended down to its black belt. The gi had an integrate diamond pattern on its sleeves and a black, square patch on the bend of its knees.

With a mighty cry of “Throh!”, he planted his feet in the dirt, one after the other in a fashion similar to sumo wrestlers. Grovyle narrowed his eyes slightly at his new opponent, already have an inkling feeling the back of his mind.

“A throh,” Ash said to himself, lifting a closed hand to rest against his chin. “Certainly a tougher opponent. They’re renowned for their defensive capabilities and notoriously high endurance. This one may take a little extra reinforcement.” He glanced down to Blue. “Whaddya think, bud?”

Blue shook his head, gesturing to Grovyle, “Pika pikachu pika pikachu!”

Ash smirked a bit. “You’re right. Grovyle’s got this; he’d never forgive me if I pulled him out of this fight.” He turned back to the field, adjusting the brim of his hat. “Ready Grovyle?”

“Grow,” he responded with a smirk and a thumbs up.

“Both combatants are ready! The next round, Grovyle vs. Throh begins… now!”

“Leaf Blade!” Ash cried, to which Grovyle was on the move nigh instantaneously. His blades returned again, rushing up to Throh and striking his left one against the judo Pokémon’s chest. A loud grunt of pain echoed from Throh, but the fighting type was otherwise fine, glaring at the grass type that dare attack him.

Shining barely hid a smug little grin as called out to Ash, “Sorry, but one hit knock-outs aren’t gonna happen with Throh on the field. Show him your strength! Use Superpower!”

“Uh oh,” Ash couldn’t help but mutter. Throh’s body suddenly began to glow with a fiery, blue aura as it grabbed at Grovyle, but the wood gecko was too slippery for Throh. With quick movements, Grovyle ducked weaved as Throh pursued after him to get the grass type in his grip.

‘This is no good,’ Ash thought to himself, watching Grovyle continually dodge Throh who simply wouldn’t give up. ‘Throh has enough power and will to keep Grovyle moving for a while. One of them will trip up sooner rather than later, so let’s see if we can force the trip.’ With a small smirk, he called out, “Giga Drain!”

Grovyle possessed the same smirk at that moment, jumping back from Throh’s latest grab attempt. The blades on his arms retreated, but continued to glow before shooting out as glowing, green vines that jabbed right into Throh’s chest, causing the Pokémon to grunt in pain. The vines began to pulse, sending energy from Throh to Grovyle through them. As each pulse ran down the length, Throh got visibly weaker, dropping to his knee with pained breath.

“Throh, get out of there!” Shining helplessly called out. “Break the vines; tear them out; do something!”

After a moment, Grovyle did that for him, yanking his arms back as the vines retracted back into the leaves they were.

“Alright,” said Ash, fidgeting with his hat again, “End this round, Grovyle. Leaf Blade.”

Grovyle nodded, his leaves reforming into the green, sicle-esque blades. He began to slowly step towards Throh, who was still stunned from the Giga Drain.

“Get out of there!” Shining repeated, desperate to get his Pokémon out of the inevitable strike. Despite Shining’s calls, Grovyle swiftly moved again, slashing with Leaf Blade. Throh let out a soft cry before crumpling to the ground in a heap, his eyes swirling in defeat.

“Throh is unable to battle! The round goes to Grovyle!” Raven declared.

“Grow,” the grass type muttered, walking back to his position on Ash’s side of the field, missing his opponent being recalled to Shining’s pokéball.

“That was very smart of Ash,” Twilight muttered, rubbing her chin slightly. She made a quick note about it before continuing, knowing full well the others were listening. “Giga Drain took all the steam out Throh’s already weakened state. Thus, leaving him wide open for the finishing blow.”

“How was he weakened?” asked Rainbow, her forelegs crossed with a brow quirked. “I mean, I guess that X-Scissor hit well, but it didn’t seem to do much.”

“It’s the fault of Superpower. Such a high powered technique is bound to have some repercussions. Superpower’s case being that it weakens its own power and defense with each use. And while Giga Drain isn’t a physical move to abuse that weakened state, Throh was already getting exhausted from continual use of the move and Grovyle just depleted the rest of his stamina. Ergo, Superpower led to Throh’s destruction, if you will.”

“Wowie, the irony!” Pinkie giggled, looking back down at the field.

“Nice try, big guy,” Shining spoke to the silent ball before stowing it away and pulling out the next one. “Attention, Sawk!” He lobbed the ball up, letting it split open to reveal a bipedal, humanoid Pokémon with a lean, blue body and rocky skin. Its head was oblong-like and low on its shoulders, with an ornate sideways z-shaped black feature that formed its nose and its left brow. Its hands and feet each had three digits, with its feet and toes coming to a sharp point. It wore a light blue Karate gi with a black, v-neck collar that extended down to its black belt. The gi had an intricate diamond pattern on its sleeves and a black, square patch on the bend of its knees.

“Saaaaawk!” the new fighting type exclaimed, flexing his muscles for the crowd for a moment before getting into a low fighting stance.

Ash couldn’t help but smirk at the new opponent. ‘Just enough showboating to get the crowd into it before getting right to business. I like this one.’

“This one isn’t gonna be so easy, Ketchum!” Shining shouted with a smile. “Sawk is one of my best fighters; he won’t gonna be defeated by your little lizard!”

Grovyle quirked a brow at Shining as if to say, “Did you really just call me that?”. He uncrossed his arms before cracking his knuckles. Grovyle lowered himself into a runner’s stance, clearly ready to fight.

“The next round, Grovyle vs. Sawk, shall now begin!”

“Leaf Blade!” Ash ordered, causing Grovyle to take off with his blades at the ready.

“Quick Guard!” Shining cried out. Sawk raised his arms together vertically, blocking his view of Grovyle, but also creating a shield for himself. His arms began to glow red just as Grovyle struck with Leaf Blade, the strike glancing off the shield. The rebound of his move, caused Grovyle to cry out in surprise as well as stumble back slightly. “Double Kick!”

“Grow?” Grovyle questioned just as Sawk’s foot slammed into his gut. The wind was completely knocked from the wood gecko, though the attack was only half over. Sawk twisted from the jabbing kick, putting the first kicked foot down to jab his other foot into Grovyle’s face, sending the grass type skidding through the dirt back to his own side of the field. “Grovyle…” he groaned, picking himself up out of the dust, glaring at Sawk.

“Hoo-wee,” Applejack muttered, scratching at her head under her hat. “That’s some power Sawk’s packin’. Ah think that’s the first for this entire day where Ash’s ‘mons took proper damage.”

“Yeah, but Grovyle isn’t gonna take it lying down,” said Spike.

True to the drake’s words, Grovyle was already standing and looking ready to fight. Or, more precisely, win. “Nice trick,” Ash complimented, sporting a grin.

“Coming from you, I’ll accept the praise,” Shining retorted. “Let me guess, you’ve got another trick up your sleeve to counter me?”

“You’re learning. Good; it means you’re a good trainer. As to your guess, I have many tricks. And here’s an old favorite of mine. Grovyle, Leaf-Scissor!”

“Leaf-what‽” Shining shouted in shock. Before the audience’s eyes, Grovyle’s Leaf Blades sprung to life again, but that’s where the similarities ended. The sickles were suddenly outlined with the lighter green energy of X-Scissor, the tips of the blades extending with the same color, creating enormous, twin blades jutting out of Grovyle’s arms. “Oh ponyfeathers,” Shining cursed under his breath before shaking his head back into the battle. “Sawk, Quick Guard, now!”

Sawk was quick to follow orders, bracing his arms again as the red shield flowed through them. Grovyle surged forward and, to the trained eye like Shining’s, he was faster than before, as if the power of the combined technique had flowed into his very being. In less than a blink, he was on Sawk, crossing his blades against the Quick Guard. The two struggled against another, trying to push the other away, sweat pouring from their brows as both opponents refused to give.

But poor Sawk simply didn’t have the power to repel Grovyle. As the power struggle continued, Sawk felt his stamina depleting, causing him to take a knee and give Grovyle his chance. The wood gecko backed off momentarily, giving surprise to Sawk and allowing Grovyle to cross his blades down on the off-guard Pokémon’s shield. That strike was enough to stagger Sawk out of the technique, his arms being shoved apart and his chest being struck by the combined might of Leaf Blade and X-Scissor.

The attack was powerful enough to cause an explosion on contact, sending up dust that shielded the results of the round from the crowd. When the clouds cleared, it was Grovyle standing tall with Sawk on the ground, an ‘x’ burned into his gi.

“Sawk is unable to battle, the winner is Grovyle!”

Grovyle slightly panted before picking his twig off the ground and gripping it in his teeth. “Grow,” he sighed, moving back to Ash’s side of the field.

“Another combination move,” Twilight breathed, quickly jotting it down in her already bursting notepad. “It seems that Krookodile wasn’t the only one Ash has created unique moves for. If my hypothesis is right, than it’s possible that each of his Pokémon has special combination techniques out of their already existing moveset.”

“And what does that mean?” Rainbow asked, quickly getting lost in Twilight’s babble.

“It means...well, it means that even if we know all four of his Pokémon’s moves, Ash still has tricks hidden to spring at any moment.”

“‘Cept right now, we don’t know all four moves,” Applejack said, leaning back in her seat with her arms crossed, staring intently at the field. “Leaf Blade, X-Scissor, an’ Giga Drain. That’s what we know Grovyle has under his belt. That still leaves an unknown one hidden in the wings. An’ Ah for one don’t like that. Charizard only needed his Flamethrower to knock most of Blueblood’s ‘mons out, save for the overkill of Blast Burn.”

“There’s no kill like overkill!” Pinkie giggled, snorting a little too.

Applejack rolled her eyes with a grin before continuing. “Right. An’ Krookodile too only showed three: Earthquake, Iron Tail, an’ Foul Play. Ah’m not likin’ how much we’re learning ‘bout his Pokémon yet still so much remains a mystery.”

“But, um, that’s not really being dishonest. Is it?” questioned Fluttershy, looking between her friends.

“No it ain’t,” Applejack shook her head. “But it ain’t bein’ honest neither. He’s hidin’ his ace cards; keepin’ ‘em fer just the right moment. What that is, though, is what’s got me on edge.” The girls went silent from that, turning their heads back to the match with even more thoughts running through their minds.

Shining stowed Sawk’s pokéball away just after he returned the Pokémon, taking a deep breath to steady his emotions. ‘This trainer is unlike anything I’ve ever faced. The only time this has happened before was when I fought Luna. Even then I was at least able to take out a few of her Pokémon. With just one, first level evolution he’s been able to take out all but my two best fighters. I can’t get lax around him, or he’ll knock me out without any issues. It’s time to take this fight to the highest level!’ Shining grabbed his next pokéball, and tossed it out with a spin. “Attention! Toxicroak!” The ball hit the ground, releasing this pokémon with the typical blue-white glow. This “Toxicroak” was a dark blue and teal, bipedal Pokémon resembling a poison dart frog. Its head bore a gently-upward curling spike which seemed to be a part of the skull. Its eyes were bright yellow, sinister and intimidating, with a small snake-like pupil. Its mouth gave an appearance of a mouth-guard, with its red upper lip curling upward at the ends in a very intimidating manner. Underneath its chin was a bulbous red vocal sac, though it wasn’t very large. It had three fingers and one large red claw on the back of each hand, while its forearms had two black rings encircling them. Its legs were muscular and seem to be adapted for speedy attacks. It had three toes on its feet, with a red middle toe on each foot, and a sharp spike which jutted out of its heels. Underneath the pelvic area were two white horizontal lines. Thick black lines ran down the sides of its body and surrounding its limbs, making them seem as if the limbs were detachable. The black lines went up into its face and surrounded the eyes before meeting in the middle of its snout, just above the upper lip.

“Croooooak,” the poisonous Pokémon wheezed, her vocal sac inflating and deflating with each breath, giving the impression that the creature was sickly.

Grovyle, however, knew far better than to assume as such, his eyes narrowing at his new opponent. He let out a small growl as he got into a defensive position.

“A toxicroak?” Ash muttered to himself. ‘This one will be the most difficult, I’m sure. The poison typing gives Shining the advantage and none of Grovyle’s moves are very effective against that type. Then again, when has that stopped me?’

“Both combatants are ready to begin. The fifth round, Grovyle vs. Toxicroak, shall now begin!”

“Let’s take care of that troublemaker, Toxicroak! Use your Poison Jab and take care of him!”

“Croak!” the toxic mouth Pokémon replied. She crossed her arms, giving the audience and her opponent a full view as both claws on the back of her hands began to glow a sickly purple. They extended out even sharper, coursing with deadly, poisonous energy.

“This could be bad for Ash,” Twilight said, having for once set down her notes. “My brother’s Toxicroak possesses an extremely deadly toxin even for her kind. With just one hit, it doesn’t matter what level Grovyle has reached, he’ll be down for the count.”

“Oh dear. I hope he’ll be okay,” Fluttershy mumbled out.

“Crud,” Ash cursed under his breath. “Don’t let that thing near you, bud!”

“Pipika!” Blue shouted as well, inwardly worried for his fellow teammate.

Grovyle didn’t dare even glance back at his trainer and fellow Pokémon, knowing taking his eyes off of Toxicroak would be nothing short of a knock out. Then, with a quick step, Toxicroak was on the move, reaching striking distance of Grovyle quicker than he was ready for. “Grow!” he cried in shock.

Luckily, Ash was on guard for this. “Energy Ball! Now!”

Acting quickly, Grovyle held his hands apart as a swirling ball of green energy formed between them. At that moment, Toxicroak jabbed forward with her attack, incidentally striking the newly formed Energy Ball. The collision caused a chain reaction that caused the Energy Ball to detonate, throwing both battlers back a fair distance apart.

“Clever,” Twilight thought aloud. “And there’s Grovyle’s final move too,” she said, giving Applejack a glance, which quickly turned to confusion at the frown on her friend’s face. “Something wrong?”

“Ah’m not sure,” the farm mare replied.

“Aw come on, Jackie!” Pinkie whined. “You saaaaid you wanted to see all of Grovyle’s moves, and now you have! What’s so suspicious now‽”

“That’s just it. Ah don’t know. Energy Ball is a powerful technique fer sure, but why hide it for so long into the battle? There jus’ somethin’ in mah gut sayin’ that there’s somethin’ else goin’ on with that move that Ash ain’t showin’. An’ I have a feelin’ it’ll be the end of Shinin’s chance at winning when it does show up.”

Twilight couldn’t have held back her gulp if she tried, turning back to the match with a new trepidation towards Grovyle.

“Alright, time for the kiddie gloves to come off,” Ash declared, once again adjusting his hat. “We can’t go easy on this one, Grovyle. Give her your X-Blade!”

“Wait, what‽” Twilight nearly screeched, thankfully muffled by the crowd’s gasp. Before their very eyes, they witnessed a reverse of the Leaf-Scissor from before; from Grovyle’s arms sprang the light-green energy of X-Scissor before the darker-green of Leaf Blade outlined and extended the previous technique, creating a perfect reverse-overlap. “Two different variations using the same techniques‽ That’s brilliant! Why has nopony ever done this before‽”

“Probably because it takes years of practice to be able to do something like that,” Rainbow answered the rhetorical question. “I mean, my own moves that I’ve used for stunt shows for the foals took me years to get down perfect. No doubt it’s the same for them.”

“How very profound of you, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity compliment with a smile. Dash smirked before giving a belch, causing Rarity’s nose to crinkle in disgust. “I may have spoke too soon.”

“Shush!” Pinkie chastised, putting a hoof to Rarity’s mouth while stuffing her own with popcorn. “Dis ish da bes’ par’!” she said through a stuffed face.

“Don’t back down, Toxicroak!” Shining barked out. “You can take him down! Use Poison Jab and end it!”

Toxicroak wheezed out in response as her claws illuminated with poisonous energy again. Just as she had her move ready, Grovyle’s was prepared as well, resulting in the two surging forward at the same moment. Only a moment later did they clash, X-Blade striking against Poison Jab with such ferocity that it caused a surge of power to burst around them, cracking through the ground. The two battlers pushed against one another, matching in strength and causing them to back off the attack before clashing again with even more power.

Strike after strike, the two repeated their respective techniques with a vigor unseen through the whole battle. Neither was willing to give to the other, both Pokémon performing a deadly dance for their completely captive audience. The ground cracked and split around them, each blocked strike sending waves of energy flowing through the field. It seemed as if the two would be stuck in this rhythm for the rest of time…

Until the moment struck.

One of Toxicroaks jabs glanced off of Grovyle’s blade at just the right angle, causing Grovyle’s eyes to widen then instantly narrow. He quickly pressed forward, moving under Toxicroak’s blocked arm. The poison/fighting type wheezed highly in surprise as Grovyle moved right in her face. Before she could react, the wood gecko’s arms crossed in an upward ‘x’, the full power of his combination move being flooded into Toxicroak’s body. The toxic mouth Pokémon cried out in pain as the move detonated on her, once again kicking up dust from the arena.

When the dust cleared, it was only Ash’s Pokémon that was still standing.

“Toxicroak is unable to battle! Grovyle is the winner!” The crowd was stock still, not a single sound being heard.

And then they erupted into a grand applause, cheering and whistling for both Grovyle and Toxicroak.

Grovyle watched as Toxicroak was recalled to her ball, letting his move recede back into the three leaves on his arms, slumping slightly from the exhaustion he was beginning to feel. He nearly dragged himself back over to Ash’s side of the field, giving a thumbs up to Ash who had a worried expression on his face.

“You sure?” he called to Grovyle.

“Grow,” the Pokémon answered back along with a nod, turning back to Shining who was thanking Toxicroak for her hard work.

With a soft sigh, Shining put away Toxicroak’s ball and picked out his final battler. “Alright, my old friend. Everything rests on you now. Attention! LUCARIO!” The ball went high into the air, the Pokémon being released landing on the ground hard enough to lift dirt into the air. The light disappeared, revealing a bipedal, canine-like Pokémon, with fur that was predominantly blue and black. It possessed a short, round spike on the back of each forepaw, in addition to a third on its chest. It had a long snout and ears along with four, small, black appendages on its head. When its mouth opened, it had two pairs of pointed teeth, one in the upper jaw and one in the lower. It possessed cream-colored fur on its torso, and blue fur on its thighs that resembled shorts. It had a medium length tail of the same blue color as well. It stood on its toes rather than on its entire foot. It opened its eyes, showing fierce, red eyes that showed a deep fire for battling within them.

Lucario growled softly as he spread his legs into a fighting stance, clearly ready to get into battle. He stared down Grovyle who similarly got into a stance, his arms ready to form his signature blades again.

Raven raised her flags, looking between both combatants. “The final round of the third match, Grovyle vs. Lucario, begins… now!”

“Leaf Blade!”

“Bone Rush!”

There was no exchange of pleasantries this time around. Shining and Ash knew that this was where things would go down and they knew their Pokémon would put everything they had into it. Grovyle’s sickle-like blades of energy clashed instantly against a glowing, blue, energy bone-staff that Lucario had formed of his aura.

If the audience had believed that Grovyle against Toxicroak had been the highlight of the fight, they were sincerely mistaken. The very instant the attacks collided, a burst of energy could be felt across the entire stadium, blowing back the manes of stallions and mares alike. The ground beneath the fierce fighters cracked, split, and eventually shattered from the sheer power they displayed.

Lucario and Grovyle pushed each other back, but they swung at each other once again, repeating their show of power. This continual repetition occurred again and again as they clashed. Grovyle would swing his Leaf Blade down and Lucario would meet it with an upward strike of his Bone Rush. When Lucario would lunge, Grovyle would parry, neither giving the other any form of advantage.

From the stands above, Spike was in utter awe of what he saw. “Holy cow! Look at them go! Now this is a Pokémon battle!” Most of the girls were too stunned by the display to respond, only nodding with wide-eyed expressions. Only Twilight was able to speak, her notes dropping as her own shock stopped her levitation spell.

“I… I can’t believe what I’m watching,” she breathed, trying to keep track of each fast-paced blow. “I’ve seen Lucario battle before, but nothing like this. This, this is unreal. Such power; such speed; such… everything. This is unlike anything Equestria has seen in over a thousand years.”

Even in the box for the princesses, Luna and Celestia had their full attention on the battle at hoof, their experienced eyes following each blow. It was only a few moments into the battle when Luna spoke, “You student’s brother certainly is no slacker in training that Lucario. Being able to keep up with Grovyle on this level is very impressive.”

“Perhaps,” Celestia mused, her mane being blown back by another burst of air from the battle. “But you and I both know Ash still hasn’t started fighting with his all.”

“Nor is he humoring Captain Armor,” Luna replied in a neutral tone. “Grovyle is enjoying a battle that it hasn’t had even from before his trainer’s stasis. Neither of us ever could give Grovyle a battle like this; not with the Pokémon we hold.”

“Too true, my sister. But let’s just see how far Shining can push our old friend.”

Grovyle ducked a swing of Lucario’s bone-staff, slicing his blade at his opponent’s unguarded torso. With quick precision and skill, Lucario jutted his staff in reverse, blocking the attack at his stomach before twisting his whole body around to swing his staff over his head and down on Grovyle’s. The wood gecko was moving instantly, bring his twin blades to cross above his head, catching Lucario’s staff before slicing up and pushing his opponent away.

As Lucario skidded back from Grovyle, Shining took his chance. “Aura Sphere!” The aura Pokémon dismissed his staff, putting his forepaws slightly apart and gathered his aura into a bright shining, blue ball of pure energy, looking almost like a miniature blue star. Lucario poured even more of his aura into the sphere, doubling its original size to the point where it was slightly larger than his own head. He threw his arms above his head before throwing them forward, launching the deadly attack right at his opponent.

“Get rid of it, Grovyle!” Ash ordered and Grovyle was quick to respond. He rushed forward without fear, jumping right into the path of the Aura Sphere and slashed through it with Leaf Blade. He passed by the attack before it detonated, the explosion giving him a kick forward towards Lucario. “Now! Energy Ball!” Grovyle gathered the necessary energy in between his hands as he approached his opponent at a fast pace.

“Get ready, Lucario!” Shining said, Lucario getting into a defensive stance. “Prepare to-”

“Giga Drain!” Ash called out, interrupting his opponent. Grovyle jumped high into the air in response, his blades reforming into vines that reached out and… latched onto the Energy Ball‽ Before anypony could even fathom what they were doing, Grovyle drained his own attack into himself before crying out as his body lit with a green, fiery aura. “X-Blade!” Ash followed as soon as he could, Grovyle’s vines once again reforming into the Leaf Blade-enhanced X-Scissor. The blades weren’t as large as they previously had been, taking a sharper appearance where it looked like the blades were lined by a saw blade; giving Grovyle the appearance to be wielding twin knives with serrated edges, given a far more intimidating presence with the aura surrounding him.

“There it is,” Celestia whispered with a small smile.

Twilight’s jaw went slack at the sight of what just happened. “What has he done?” she whispered to herself, trying to wrap her head around the four-technique combination she was just witness to. The other girls, and Spike, were just as shocked, none being able to say a thing to properly cope with the sight before them.

Had Shining not been in the battle himself, he may have been in a similar state. This time, however, his eyes were narrowed and focused, quickly coming to terms with the power that was bearing down on him. Neither he nor his battle-ready Lucario would be deterred. “Lucario! Bone Rush!” A quick thought ran through Shining’s head, causing him to make an additional command. “And Close Combat!” he shouted with all his might. Lucario’s fists and feet became ablaze with a copper, fighting aura, his paws slamming together to form his bone-staff, now having that same aura swirling along its length. Grovyle dipped down towards Lucario who jumped right towards his opponent with enough force to shatter the very ground he had been standing on.

The two roared at each other as the Energy X-Blade collided with the Bone Combat, the fierce contact sending a burst of pressure that crashed down onto the field and the crowd, causing them to scream in surprise mixed with a twinge of fear. Grovyle and Lucario stared each other down in mid air before shoving apart, landing on the ground only to speed against one another again, clashing with just as much ferocity.

Ash and Shining watched with sweat-coated brows as their partners clashed with power unseen in modern day Equestria. Each class destroyed more and more of the field, not that the two Pokémon cared, their minds solely focused on the battle of their lives. Blade met bone time and again, neither backing down or giving anything to the other.

This, to the ponies that watched, was a clash of warriors. A true battle.

And then it happened.

Lucario adjusted his grip on his bone-staff, holding it like a bat and gave a powerful, horizontal swing at Grovyle. The wood gecko brought his right arm up to block, the bone meeting it with such intensity, that the bone shattered apart.

Shining and Lucario’s eyes went wide.

And so did Ash’s.

“NOW!” he cried out and Grovyle responded instantaneously, using everything he had left in himself to strike at Lucario with his left blade. Lucario cried out, but Grovyle wasn’t done, striking with his right.

Then his left.

Then his right.

Again and again, Grovyle slashed Lucario with his entire being. Most of the crowd lost count after the first few strikes, but Celestia kept track until the final cross slash threw Lucario into the air.

‘One hundred and five. Very impressive, old friend. This truly is the battle you’ve been waiting for.’

Lucario landed to the ground, kicking up the dust of the obliterated field, groaning slightly with swirls in his eyes.

Shakily, Raven lifted a flag towards Grovyle. “Lucario is unable to battle. Grovyle is the winner. The third match goes to Ash Ketchum!”

Like before, silenced reigned over the field. Not even a kricketot could be heard.

Then the loudest cheer in history roared over Ash, Shining, Grovyle, and Lucario. They applauded with all their might, screaming at the top of their lungs, and whistling with the brightest smiles ever.

Grovyle dropped to his knees before falling on his butt, panting hard as all of his attack energy diminished. Ash came up behind his Pokémon and put a hand on Grovyle’s shoulder. The wood gecko looked up at his trainer, seeing the bright smile before smiling back with a thumbs up.

“You did good, bud. You did good.”

“Pika pikachu pika!” Blue agreed, jumping to Grovyle’s other side. The grass type smiled widely at the double praise, before looking over at Lucario. Shining had moved on to the field as well, carefully helping the fighting/steel type to sit up, wincing in pain with the slightest movement.

Ash could overhear Shining congratulating his own Pokémon over such a spectacular battle. ‘Shining’s a fierce competitor. Had he been able to fully unlock that potential, Grovyle more than likely wouldn’t have been enough to end things. He’s a true trainer, through and through.’ He stood back up to his full height, getting a questioning “Pika” from Blue.

The crowd calmed down, watching with interest on what the legend would say, Shining and Lucario both eagerly curious without showing it. Ash adjusted the brim of his hat with a small smile. “Shining Armor, that battle was absolutely amazing. It’s been years since I’ve seen Grovyle be pushed like that and I was glad it was you and your team that gave it to us. You’re the prime example of the kind of trainers I wanted to help nourish this world; you have a good heart and a good head on your shoulders, even if that ego can mess with it at times.” The crowd chuckled a bit with him as Shining softly smiled. “So keep training with that team of yours and break through your limits to a new horizon. Then someday, I want a rematch.”

Shining’s jaw slacked. “A-a-a rematch‽ Really‽”

“Of course! I wanna see how strong you become.” He grinned widely. “Whaddya say?” Ash held out his hand. The stallion stared at it for a moment before shakily extending his foreleg and pressed it to outstretched palm. Ash wrapped his fingers around the fetlock and they shook on it, getting a wild cheer from the crowd. “And keep working on that Bone Combat there. It really works for you.”

“Bone Combat, huh?” Shining mused, rubbing his chin. “I like it! Until then, Ketchu-... Ash. Next time it won’t be so easy.”

Ash chuckled softly. “Can’t wait. Now get Lucario patched up so you can enjoy the rest of the show.”

Shining nodded, returning Lucario to his pokéball. He stowed the ball away and nodded one last time to Ash before walking off the field, the crowd cheering as he left the arena. A team of four unicorns quickly ran out to the field, using their magic to begin repairing the field, the surface slowly altering.

“I can’t believe Shiny lost,” Twilight slumped, picking up her dropped notes to shuffle them so nothing poked out of the sides. “I really thought Lucario could have won.”

“Poor critter jus’ might ‘ve had it not been luck that his bone done-gone and got smashed. Lucario was fresh inta things and Grovyle had already fought five other hard battlers. All things considered, Lucario should’a won.”

“Maybe in a normal battle, AJ,” Rainbow chimed in, “But this is Ash we’re talking about here. A legend at work! Nothing’s gonna stop him!”

Rarity raised a brow at Rainbow. “Oh really? What about the princesses, hm? Are you so eager to believe that he can defeat Princess Luna and Princess Celestia?”

“W-w-well I…” Rainbow stuttered, but Twilight came to the rescue.

“Maybe,” she said simply.

“W-what‽” Rarity gasped, her jaw slack at her friend. The others stared at Twilight as well, save for Spike who was watching the field still with stars in his eyes.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but legends say that Red and Green were the only trainers never to bested by the princesses. That may have been centuries ago, but we’ve seen that Ash isn’t going to be deterred. His battle skills, quick thinking, and ingenuity are giving him the big edge in this game. As much as I’d like to think the princesses could beat him, I wouldn’t place any bets for it.”

Before the girls could continue the debate, Raven shouted out to the crowd, “And now ladies and gentlecolts! Fillies and colts of all ages! We have the final member of the Elite Four! The ruler of the night and the dreams within it! Descended from the moon onto us lowly mortals; the mare of mystery herself! PRRRRRINCESS LUUUUUNNNNAAAA!” The crowd roared and cheered as Luna took air from the royal box and descended to her own side of the field, opposing Ash directly. The field between them now lush with green grass instead of the barren, rocky field of before.

“Pika,” Blue muttered, seeing the smirk on Luna’s face as well as his trainers.

“Now,” Ash whispered, “we begin the real battle.”

What a show! With three of the Elite Four already defeated, can our hero continue on to take down both Luna and Celestia? Or will Ash’s challenge be over before he knows it? Stay tuned to find out.

Author's Note

Hey everyone. I know it's been a while since you've seen or heard from me, but I hope this makes up for the silence as I try to get back into the swing of things. I've got more coming for everyone in due time, so please continue to be patient and thanks for reading.