Author's Note
This story is actually something I thought of when I read the description of a Pokemon episode that, from the time this story was submitted and published, hadn't been released in the States. The Japanese title, translated into English, is "Fierce Fighting at the Kalos League! Gather, All of My Passion!!" The English title is "Kalos League Passion with a Certain Flare." Reading the description, the idea of Ash Ketchum from the Pokemon series and Fleur De Lis of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic meeting struck me as so absurd, and the more I thought about it, the more this story developed in my mind. I hope you enjoy it.
Also, the scriptural connection is a little more remote with this one than my previous stories. In this case, my favorite episode of Pokemon is in the fourth season, and is called "The Big Balloon Blowup." I'm convinced that episode was inspired by a story from the Book of Mormon.
A Little Too Kalos
Behind a curtain, a tall, thin, white unicorn awaited her turn. To look at her, one might think she might be related to Princess Celestia. If her mane and tail were the four pastel colors like that of the solar princess, if her mane and tail waved in front of her, and if she had wings, she could easily pass for her. Instead, this white unicorn had pink mane and tail that hung from their origins, with a lighter pink highlight in both. And, the dress she was wearing, a stylish electric-pink gown to match her mane and tail, covered her cutie mark, which resembled three peeled bananas, two lavender above a larger yellow one.
As another unicorn mare nearby signaled for the curtain to go up, the white unicorn closed her eyes, inhaled, and exhaled to relax herself.
Normally, she enjoyed prancing out on the stage, to the end of the long, thin, elevated trail, circling a hundred eighty degrees, then prancing back to the waiting curtain. And, it didn’t matter to her whether she was the first out, the last, or a pony in between. But, this evening, something was different. She couldn’t put her hoof on a particular reason, but this particular evening she felt unusually tired. While this was the last of ten shows she’d had on this day, it was nothing unusual for her. And, it hadn’t been that long ago since her last day off.
The curtain went up, and she pranced onto the stage, across the catwalk, in front of oohing and aahing spectators and flashing camera lights. She pranced to the end of the catwalk as a disembodied stallion’s voice described the outfit she was wearing, identifying the best reasons somepony might wear such an outfit. Then, she turned a hundred eighty degrees and started her prance back to the curtain. But, just before she got there, she stumbled a bit. Still, she easily recovered and completed her trip back behind the curtain, where another mare awaited her turn.
A stallion waiting nearby, a white unicorn with silver mane and tail, blue eyes and a cutie mark of three crowns in an upside-down triangle formation, approached her and asked, “My flower, are you alright?”
Peering up at the white unicorn stallion, she smiled weakly and answered, “I-I’m fine. I'm just tired.” And, not waiting for the unicorn stallion to say anything further, she made her way to her dressing room where she took off the dress and proceeded toward the bed. And, all it took was for her to take two steps onto the soft surface, and she collapsed into a deep sleep.
Despite Fleur De Lis’s misstep, the fashion show had gone well. In fact, the white unicorn mare was the only one who’d stumbled.
Backstage, the mare who directed the curtain to rise cantered past the white unicorn’s room, when she heard a panicked scream from the other side of the door. Instinctively thinking that the white mare might be under attack, she tackled her way through the door, then looked around to see where the attacker might be.
Seeing the intruder crash through the door, Fleur De Lis turned to her and stammered out, “Wh-who are you?”
The smaller white unicorn, this one with purple mane and tail, after looking around and not seeing any intruder, turned back to the other unicorn and said, “It’s alright. It’s me, Rarity.”
Fleur De Lis, realizing that she was hyperventilating, took a few seconds to inhale deeply, then exhale slowly, in an attempt to control and slow down her breathing.
In the mean time, Rarity approached her and asked, “Is everything alright?”
When the larger white unicorn felt she’d calmed down enough, she turned to her visitor and answered, “Yeah, I’m fine. I just had a bad dream, I guess.”
The smaller white unicorn, now next to the bed, reached out to put a front hoof on the closest one of the larger unicorn as she said, “Well, if you need somepony to talk to, I’m here.”
Maybe it was because Rarity was one of the element bearers. Maybe Fleur just needed somepony to talk to. All she knew was that, before she knew what she was doing or saying, she blurted out, “Oh, it was awful, the worst thing I could imagine!”
As the supermodel pony reclined from a canine-style position to a sphinx-style and took a moment to sigh, Rarity pleaded, “Well, tell me what happened.”
Fleur De Lis nodded for a moment before inhaling and exhaling again, then whimpered, “I was in a place where I’d never been in my life. The floors were shiny, one wall, where I could look outside, was made of glass, and I was surrounded by these upright-walking, hairless, clothed monkeys.” She paused for a moment before correcting, “Well, they weren’t completely without hair. Most of each of them had a mane.” She then continued, “Anyway, it was a place where I felt extremely uncomfortable, so I started backing out of there. The next thing I knew, I bumped into something. I looked behind me to see who it was, and, … and it was one of the hairless monkeys.” She sniffled again before continuing, “As I turned around to face the monkey, who was shorter than me, he told me to watch where I was going, before he turned around and saw me. I don’t know why this offended me, maybe it’s what they call ponies in his world. But, he called me a … a rapid ash, I think it was.”
At this point, Rarity removed her front hoof from Fleur De Lis’s bed and used it to scratch the bottom of her chin as she said, “I’ve never heard of a word or term like that before.” She then put the hoof under her again and asked, “You’re sure it was an insult?”
Fleur De Lis looked down away from Rarity and said, “I’m not sure if it was or not, but I took it that way. I corrected him and said I was a pony. The ape responded by saying I was too big to be a pony tah, and asked for my name. I didn’t think there’d be that much of a problem telling him, so, that’s what I did, I said that my name is Fleur De Lis. And then, … and then things got s-scary.”
It was about this time that a yellow earth pony that could’ve passed herself off as a wingless Fluttershy, but with a spotlight for a cutie mark instead of three butterflies, entered the room. Approaching the two white unicorns, she asked, “Is everything alright in here? Somepony said they heard a scream from in here, and that Rarity had broken in to see what was wrong.”
Rarity focused on the yellow earth mare and answered, “It’s alright. Fleur De Lis just had a nightmare. She was just telling me about it.”
The supermodel pony nodded before continuing, “The hairless monkeys started running and screaming, something about some group called Team Flare. I tried to say I wasn’t who they thought I was, but that just made them all the more scared. Then, the next thing I knew, this female monkey approached me with what I recognized as some kind of restraints. She tried to put them on me, saying that they weren’t going to let the leader of a criminal organization get away. I backed away and said I wasn’t part of any criminal group, that I was a supermodel pony; but, nopony believed me! Th-the female monkey jumped at me and put the restraints on my front hooves, and the next thing I knew I was in a cage! And, and, and that’s when I started screaming!” And, at that point, the large white unicorn mare started bawling.
Rarity and the yellow earth mare exchanged looks of surprise and disbelief before turning back to the white unicorn in the bed.
The yellow earth mare asked, “Where were you when this happened?”
Among her sobs, Fleur De Lis was able to get out, “I, I, I think one of the monkeys, called it the C-Callous R-Region.”
Presently, the yellow earth mare hopped up on the bed with the supermodel pony and, starting with her snout and working her way back, checked the white unicorn mare for any areas of thick, rough patches as she stammered, “W-We had n-no idea y-you were under s-so m-much s-stress. Y-You should’ve s-said s-something.”
Then, Rarity said, “Maybe you should visit Princess Luna about this. After all, dreams are her forte.”
Fleur De Lis tried to push the persistent earth mare away as she said, “M-M-Maybe you’re right, Miss Rarity. Maybe I just need a break from this.” And, she rose to all fours and proceeded to step off the bed, in spite of the yellow earth mare continuing her inspection.
In the mean time, in the main hall of the Kalos League, Ash Ketchum, along with some of his friends, a few other participants in the league, and the Officer Jenny in charge, looked down at the empty hand cuffs, wondering to themselves and aloud, what had just happened.