All the Smallest Things: Original Draft

Nemona was so stunned that she couldn't reply. She just stood there, staring at the Pawmot. Her Pawmot.

Izzy waved her leg in front of Nemona's face. "Uh... Hello? Equestria to Nemona!"

Nemona finally blinked and said, "I know you!"

Pawmot tilted his head. "How so? I've never seen a Sneasel with green feathers before."

She leaned forwards. "I know this sounds crazy, but I'm your trainer! First Champion from the academy in Mesagoza, remember? You were the second Pokémon I caught for my second team!"

"I see... so why are you a Sneasel?"

Nemona shrugged. Then, she noticed they'd had attracted a crowd of blank stares. "Think we could take this conversation somewhere private?" She asked Izzy.

"Sure!" exclaimed Izzy. "Just follow me to my place!"

Misty lifted her Spewpa onto her back, and the group followed Izzy.

Izzy's house was unlike anything Nemona had ever seen. It was built into the trunk of a large tree with lilac bark, with windchimes and a basket chair hanging from its branches. The windows and front door all had stained-glass. Inside, the floor was made of cobblestones, and the walls were covered in framed pictures of plants made of fabric. On one side, there was a staircase that led to a platform which overlooked the lower floor, and the bannister was intertwined with strings of lights.

"Ta-da!" exclaimed Izzy, gesturing to the whole room. "I made most of this stuff myself!"

Nemona and Pawmot sat down on some colourful cushions, while the ponies remained standing.

"You said you were Pawmot's trainer," said Misty. "What does that mean?"

"Oh! Remember yesterday, when I told you what humans and Pokémon were?" Nemona asked. Misty and Izzy nodded. "A Pokémon trainer is a human who catches Pokémon so they can go on a journey to become stronger together!"

"Catching? Ooh, you mentioned something called Poké Balls yesterday. Do trainers use those?" asked Izzy.

Nemona nodded. "Yeah, but most Pokémon won't go into a ball straight away. You have to prove your worth by battling them first!"

Misty gasped at this. "Battling? You mean... Pokémon like doing that?" She shuddered.

"Well, yeah."

"Most Pokémon will only show themselves to humans if they want to be captured," said Pawmot. "Pokémon battles are like sparring matches: both sides understand that no-one should get seriously hurt. Although, battles between wild Pokémon can get pretty violent..."

"You mean like the Sableye?" Izzy asked, and Misty winced.

Nemona nodded. "Also, remember that marble he stole from me? I think it was a mega stone. The aren't any where I'm from, but I've heard they allow certain Pokémon to temporarily achieve stronger forms, called mega evolutions. It sounds awesome! But I always heard that wild Pokémon can't mega evolve. They need a trainer with something called a key stone to activate it."

"Why do you think that is?"

Nemona shrugged.

"Anyway, we'd better get back to Maretime Bay," said Izzy.

Meanwhile, in Maretime Bay, Arven knocked on the door of the sheriff's station. It was two storeys tall, and was painted white and blue. Hitch had left the Brighthouse earlier, and Sunny had told Arven that Hitch lived there.

He heard a gurgling sound in response, then Hitch's muffled voice shouting, "Come here, Sparky!" Then, he said, "Who's here?"

"It's me, Arven," he said. "It's nothing serious, I just... wanna talk."

"Come in!" exclaimed Hitch.

Arven opened the door to a plain and clean room. There was a desk in one corner, a jail cell at the back, and a filing cabinet against a wall. The walls were the same colour as the outside, and the floor was made of green and white chequered tiles that felt cold beneath his dragging tail. The most interesting part was the green, baby dragon flying around in circles. As Arven stepped inside, Hitch was keeping an eye on him.

"What's the matter?" Hitch asked. He jumped to grab the dragon under his foreleg, then placed him in a basket in the corner. "Stay still for now, would you?" Then, he trotted back to Arven. "That's Sparky Sparkeroni, my son." Arven tilted his head. "He's adopted."

"I just had an argument with my friends," said Arven. "We were sparring, but then Nemona went too far and almost seriously hurt me, so Penny stopped her, and then..." He sighed before continuing. "They started talking about how great it is to be a Pokémon, but I just don't get it."

"Howcome?"

"Penny loves her Veevees and Penny loves to battle, but I was perfectly fine with being a human. I just feel awful right now, like my body doesn't belong to me. I woke up feeling dizzy, and even now I keep forgetting I have a tail..." He looked at it sadly. "They were like, 'Oh, you'll get used to it!', but that's not what I wanted to hear right now."

Hitch took a step closer. "I... don't know how to help you with your first problem, sorry. But as for the second one, maybe you just need some time away from your friends? And once you're feeling better, you can talk things over with them."

"Thanks," said Arven. "Can I stay here for now?"

"Be my guest! Next time I get a call that sounds like a Pokémon-related problem,"— he gestured to a block of plastic with a coiling wire that connected it to a bigger block of plastic on the wall — "Would you like to come help me?"

"It'll help me take my mind of things," Arven mumbled.

Suddenly, he heard a loud ringing sound. Sparky flew straight out of bed and flew towards the block of plastic on the wall — oh, it was a phone! Hitch answered it. Arven couldn't hear whoever was on the other side, but Hitch's response told him all he needed to know:

"We'll be on it!"