Zinnia stormed through the woods furiously, not really paying attention to her surroundings as she snapped branches and stomped twigs, working out her frustrations on the only things she could that wouldn’t hurt anyone - the trees.

As she reached a small clearing banked on all sides by thick foliage, the fuming woman hauled off and kicked a stone in front of her, sending it flying through the air to the opposite end of the clearing. Looking around, Zinnia said nothing as she honed in on a downed tree branch thicker around than the rest, lifting one end with some difficulty and dragging it to the center of the clearing.

After some work, Zinnia had the branch propped upright, the broken edge jammed deep into the earth and supported by a small ring of stones. Taking but a moment to admire her handiwork, Zinnia almost immediately leapt into a ferocious attack, lashing out at the branch with punches and kicks and words in an attempt to vent her frustrations.

“Stupid kids!” She cried. “Running off into the woods! Stupid parents, not teaching kids to stay safe! Stupid ponies, blaming Trixie for something that wasn’t her fault! Stupid Twilight Sparkle, kicking her out of town! Stupid Twilight, showing Trixie up! Stupid Twilight, stupid Twilight, STUPID TWILIGHT!!!”

With one last, guttural cry of rage, Zinnia spun and struck the branch with a powerful kick, jumping back at the resounding CRACK as it snapped in two and fell away from her. Panting, breath gone and muscles sore, Zinnia sank to the floor and sat heavily, crossing her arms on her knees and hiding her face in the crook of her elbows.

“Stupid me…” she muttered. “Getting so worked up over this… don’t even know any of those ponies…” She sniffled, swiping a hand across her face to banish the tears forming. “Barely even know Trixie…”

She stayed that way for a while, staring into the darkness provided by her own arms over her eyes until her exhaustion, both physical and emotional, dragged her into unconsciousness. With the area now peacefully quiet, wild Pokemon began to slowly emerge from their hiding places, slowly approaching the mysterious figure that had caused such an uproar in their home.

As an overly-curious Poochyena approached to sniff her arm, Zinnia jerked away with a snort, looking around for a moment in confusion before noticing the Dark-Type pup had leapt back to growl at her. She simply stared back at it, remaining still until the Pokemon calmed itself and approached to sniff her again.

“Hey there, little guy…” she uttered quietly, slowly extending her hand palm-up to the pup. After a brief sniff, the Poochyena let out a content yip and rubbed its face along her hand, allowing her to stroke it. “Sorry, did I scare you?”

As the pup flopped over onto it's back for tummy rubs, Zumba could only giggle, looking around at the Pokémon that had entered the clearing. Her mind raced for all the ‘useless’ information she had memorised on the species in her old life, taking note on those that she didn’t recognise as areas to figure out.

A large, regal-looking Sawsbuck was regarding her warily as a number of smaller Sawsbuck and young Deerling followed it into the clearing. When she made no movements towards them, the leader seemed to give a signal that told the others it was safe, as they all began to roam and graze in the clearing. The vibrant green leaves and fur across the heard told Zinnia it must have been the height of Summer.

A number of bird Pokémon sat upon branches surrounding the clearing, ranging from Hoothoots and Murkrow to a few Natu being watched over by an elderly Xatu. Zinnia locked eyes with the clearly aged Mystic Pokémon and gave a slight nod of respect, not entirely certain why until it seemed to nod back.

Paras scuttled along the bases of trees, searching for food. Venonat seemed to hop around in the distant shade of the trees as the forest returned to it's normal night-time activities. Even a Dustox fluttered by overhead.

The only strange occurrence that registered firmly in Zinnia’s mind was the solitary Apple that rolled down the tree it had been hanging in before completely changing direction and approaching her. Blinking slowly, Zinnia regarded the seemingly sentient fruit out of nothing more than pure curiosity as it came to a stop by her foot before a pair of eyes popped up from its skin, beady black orbs set into a pair of green stalks.

Zinnia stared at the creature for a moment as the Poochyena seemed to decide it had had enough before scampering off. With her hands now free, Zinnia turned to the apple fully. “And what might you be?”

The apple creature stared back at her before letting out an echoing chirp.

“An Applin, hun?” Zinnia mused as she shifted to cross her legs, holding a hand out. The Applin took the invitation readily, rolling into her hand for her to lift it up to her eye-level. “Never heard of one of you guys. Gotta say, you’re pretty cute!”

The eye-stalks frowned at her as Applin let out an echoing growl from within it's fruit shell.

“Right, sorry,” Zinnia giggled. “Not cute. Fierce and ferocious!”

Applin nodded smugly.

“So what type are you?” the girl asked, rubbing her chin with her free hand. “In guessing Grass but… Bug Type maybe?”

Applin shook it's whole body in her hand in the negative, chirping insistently.

“Oh, so you’re a Dragon!” Zinnia mused, smiling. “I see it now - not a worm, a wyrm. That’s pretty neat!”

Applin rocked back and forth in her hand happily, seemingly enjoying her understanding and praise. It let out a questioning chirp as Zinnia set it dow. And rose to her feet, however, the girl stretching slightly before smiling down at it.

“Well it was nice to meet you, Applin the Fierce Dragon,” Zinnia said kindly. “But I should probably get back to my friend. Stay safe now!”

And with that, Zinnia turned and made her way out of the clearing, making sure to leave a wide berth from any of the Pokémon that still seemed wary of her.

As she made her way back to camp as best as she could remember, Zinnia couldn’t shake the feeling of being followed. Every time she looked back, however, she could see nothing there. Just the trees.

Shrugging the feeling off, Zinnia just focused on getting back, breaking free of the tree line in just a few more minutes and deciding to simply sit by the fire and rest.

She wasn’t entirely sure when she’d fallen asleep. She only knew she had when Trixie shook her awake the next morning. “Bwuwha-“

“Elegant as always,” Trixie muttered with a roll of her eyes, stepping back and waiting as Zinnia yawned and stretched to wake herself up. “Thanks, by the way, for uh… getting me to bed last night.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Zinnia muttered dismissively, waving her off. “What’re friends good for if they can’t even do that, right?”

Trixie blinked in surprise before smiling slightly. “Right,” she agreed, before glancing down at Zinnia’s side. “Where’d the Applin come from?”

Zinnia frowned for a moment before looking down. Sure enough, nestled snugly into the curve of her leg was the Applin she had met the night before, snoozing contentedly. It soon woke with a start, however, when Zinnia moved her leg, causing it to tumble to the ground.

“Some girls charge for that kind of privilege, y’know,” she said teasingly as the wyrm rounded on her angrily. Rolling her eyes, Zinnia smirked as the Pokémon began chirping at her rapidly. “Yeah yeah, talk it up big guy, I could still toss you back into the woods.”

Trixie looked back and forth between the two in confusion before clearing her throat. Zinnia and Applin looked to her in confusion.

“Zinnia, you do realise you’re talking to a Pokémon, right?” the powder-blue mare asked seriously.

Zinnia blinked, looking to Applin for a moment before turning back to Trixie. “The thought crossed my mind, yes.”

“And that’s not odd to you?” Trixie asked pointedly, brow raised in question.

Zinnia simply shrugged. “For you maybe. Everything else that’s happened to me? This is fairly tame.” She paused, seeming to contemplate something for a moment. “Though I do wonder why its only Applin I can understand…”

Trixie blinked, turning it over in her mind before filing it away as a ‘just roll with it’ moment. “Maybe it's something to do with its Type?” She offered unsurely. “You did mention a dream with Rayquaza in it before.”

Zinnia hummed, nodding slightly. “Could be…” she muttered. “So I can understand Dragon Types then? That’s kinda cool.”

“Could be dangerous too,” Trixie put in. “Dragons are pretty dangerous Pokémon, to the point that they have their own Country.”

Zinnia looked to Trixie in intrigue. “Really?” She asked incredulously. “So what, the Dragons all banded together and decided ‘this is our land now’ and the rest of the world just ran with it?”

“Yes, actually. You’d have to be insane to think you could convince a nation’s worth of Dragons to up and leave, plus it was a wasteland anyway.”

Thinking it over for a moment, Zinnia could only nod. “Fair enough,” she allowed before hopping to her feet. “Well then! Shall we be off?”

Trixie gave their campsite a once-over before nodding. “Yeah, thanks for cleaning up last night by the way.”

Zinnia just shrugged.

“What arou going to do about him?” Trixie asked, gesturing to the Applin still positioned by Zinnia’s heel.

Zinnia looked down before taking a step away from the Dragon-Type. As she did, it rolled forward. She took another step, and it followed her.

“Seems like he’s coming along,” she said simply after a second of thinking. She simply shrugged at the look of surprise Trixie gave her. “What? Like you said, Dragons are stubborn - tell me he wouldn’t try and follow us.”

Trixie simply sighed. “I suppose…” she allowed, before levelling an accusatory finger at Zinnia. “But you’re in charge of feeding him!”

Zinnia just shrugged. “Fair enough,” she allowed, bending down to scoop the little apple-wyrm up and place him on her shoulder. “Hey, look at me, I’m a protagonist!”

Trixie stared at her.

“Never mind…” Zinnia sighed.

Author's Note

...so I'm back