A third Fearow was hurled backwards into a mighty and ancient oak tree, slid down the trunk, and lay there smoking and moaning.
“And so it ends,” Luna declared with a satisfied nod. “Does any other step forth to oppose me?”
In a great circle in the trees all around the deep blue alicorn was a flock of Spearow, almost four dozen strong. The little brown, red, and white birds, normally belligerent and ill-tempered, now sprouted alternating looks of shock, fear, and awe. Interspersed within them were five Fearow, all but one now sporting fresh injuries. Naturally, all eyes soon fell on him.
“Who? Me?” the Fearow said. “Heck no! I’ve said for a long time we need some fresh leadership around here! And what could be fresher than a creep- er, awe-inspiring alien princess from another dimension?!”
“You never said any of that,” came the voice of one Spearow in the crowd.
“SHUT UP!!!”
“Very well,” Luna nodded once again. “It seems that, by right of combat, I shall claim thy former leader’s place at the top of this little flock.”
The alicorn princess took flight with an easy beat of her wings, rising up through the forest clearing. The flock tracked her as she rose, necks craning to watch as Luna found a strong branch far above those that they sat on. From her new pulpit, the flock’s leader began her inaugural address.
“Pokemon of Kalos. Spearow. Fearow. For far too long has this flock been nothing but a ragged band of vagabonds and rascals! Ask yourselves, my new subjects, for what purpose do you gather? That you might come together to build something great? Nay! That you might form friendships, and learn to delight in one another’s company? Nay! That you might protect yourselves from the harsh world beyond? Nay! Even that you might train together, to grow strong and delight in your might? Nay!”
Luna pounded the branch she stood upon, and a few leaves slipped their moorings.
“You gather together to victimize the weak, to steal what you can, and to bask in whatever spoils your leaders do not loot! You choose your leaders not for their ability nor wisdom nor strength of character, but simply because they can out-scheme and out-brutalize any who would deny them! Is this any way to live? Day to day, scheming and squabbling your way to supremacy over your brethren, merely to squat in a dark forest and fight over scraps? Falling upon travelers simply because they happened upon you? What gain you by this? You live in poverty, hated and shunned, and yet your leaders one and all merely set you all against another to maintain their unworthy leadership! Miserable, petty lives amounting to nothing!”
The Spearow were beginning to chatter among themselves, some wondering what this was all about, some wondering if it was time to bail.
“No more!” Luna declared. “As your new dictator, I vow that I shall rule with an iron yet caring hoof! No more will this flock be condemned to skulk in this miserable place, but stride boldly forth beneath the moon’s white light! I will teach you to be more than a vagabonds and ruffians living for your own petty whims! Though you known nothing but squalor and cruelty, I will teach you a true and worthy purpose! I will show you friendship and the bonds of brotherhood, and I will show you true strength! What you have seen thus far is naught but the least part of it! I will take this flock, and I will make it great!”
That, at least, the Spearow understood. Their chattering became louder, more excited.
“I am the princess of Equestria!” Luna roared over them. “And you shall be my knights!”
When Twilight next emerged from her Poke Ball, she was wearing a very different expression than the night before. So were Ash and Pikachu.
“Look Twilight,” Ash said with arms crossed. “Professor Oak told me how much you wanted to find your friend and go home. I get that, I really do. But,” he shook his head, “if you wanna travel with my friends and me to find her, you can’t act like you did last night. You understand?”
The purple alicorn bit her lower lip just a bit, and then nodded.
Ash smiled, shook his head, and then walked a bit closer to her. “I know this world has gotta be scary for you. You’re in whole new place, with a brand new attitude, but you don’t know anyone or anything. Your friend is out there and mixed up with a really bad group of people, I get that. You wanna get her back so you can go home together, right?”
Twilight nodded a second time.
“And we’re willing to help you with that, right guys?” Ash looked back over his shoulder at the three other humans there.
“That’s right!” said Bonnie.
“Absolutely!” agreed Clemont.
“We can’t just leave a princess in the hands of Team Rocket!” Serena clenched her fist.
“You see?” Ash looked back at Twilight. “We’re all willing to pitch in to help, aren’t we Pikachu?”
“I don’t know how much I trust her judgement,” the little yellow Pokemon looked skeptical.
“Right,” Ash continued on, oblivious. “We’ll help you get your friend back if you let us, Twilight, but you’ve gotta let us! You do want that, right?”
Twilight hesitated, saying nothing.
“Look…” Ash reached down to his belt, picking a Poke Ball. “If you don’t wanna stay with us, if you’d rather go your own way, then that’s okay. I won’t make a Pokemon stay if you don’t want to. If you want to, you can walk right out the door right now and go look for your friend by yourself. Or you can jump back in this Poke Ball and go back to Professor Oak’s place. He’s a great guy, I’m sure he’d let you stay a while. You can do any of that right now if you don’t want to be with my friends and me, but…” he frowned a bit. “If you do wanna come with us to look for Team Rocket, you can’t attack Pikachu or any of the rest of us, okay? I don’t know what that argument last night was about or how it works in your home, but in this dimension friends don’t attack friends.”
Twilight stared up at him, then down at the ball. She spared a glance to the Pokemon Center’s glass front door behind her.
“So,” Ash bent down and offered her a hand. “What do you say? Friends?”
“I…” Twilight looked down at her hooves. “I’m sorry about what happened last night. I… I wasn’t thinking quite clearly. I was just so scared for Princess Celestia, so angry at what happened the first time you met, that I didn’t properly consider all the circumstances that brought it about. I didn’t consider how long you’ve had to deal with Team Rocket or the rules of this world. I didn’t think about how angry you must have been that your friend had just nearly been kidnapped. I still don’t think what you did was right, but after thinking about it I don’t think you’re bad poni- er, people either. You did save a total stranger when you didn’t have to, after all.”
“You think we would have just let you die!” Pikachu looked shocked. “Even Team Rocket wouldn’t do something like that!”
“Anyway, much as part of me still wants to yell at you for attacking the princess when you obviously shouldn’t have, I can’t ignore the circumstances or what you did for me that night in the forest. If you’re willing to redeem your mistake by helping me to rescue her I’ll consider us more than even.” Twilight looked up. “So I guess what I’m trying to say is: yes, friends.”
Twilight reached up with one hoof. Ash smiled, grabbed it with one hand, and shook it firmly.
“Welcome to the team, Twilight!” He said happily, releasing her hoof after a moment and returning to his full height. “Now come on, I gotta introduce you to everybody else!”
As Ash led the group outside to release the rest of their Pokemon for a meet and greet of the newcomer, Pikachu sidled up alongside Twilight.
“So are you really sorry for what you did to me last night?” he whispered to her. “Or are you just wanting to use us to get your princess back and sorry you got shocked?”
“I really am sorry,” Twilight replied. “I shouldn’t have treated you like that. You did a bad thing, but I don’t think it was malicious on your part, just ignorant. My behavior was unproductive, ungrateful, and wrong and for that I apologize. Upon further reflection it’s Team Rocket that should bear the brunt of my anger.”
“Right,” Pikachu nodded.
“I mean,” she continued as they all exited the building, “it’s obvious they were manipulating you.”
“Rig- wait, what?”
“In hindsight it’s clear to me that they arranged that whole encounter for the sole purpose of baiting you into attacking Princess Celestia, presumably as part of their ingenious campaign of psychological warfare designed to undermine her will to resist.”
Pikachu felt a sweat drop forming on the back of his head. “You really still believe that Team Rocket are some super genius band of evil masterminds?”
“Think about it. First they kidnap you and start a battle to get your group all riled up. When you’re looking angry enough, they begin to ‘lose’ to get you confident, then call out a resistant Celestia. Having no clue of the true situation you think her another Pokemon and attack. Do you see the brilliance of it? Either she does nothing and allows herself to get beaten, thus giving them ammunition to fuel her rage against an injustice you perpetrated against her. Or she fights back and does battle on their behalf, crossing a major psychological line right then and there. And because you were already in a state of anger and battle adrenaline, there was virtually no chance for a peaceful solution! What is one more fake humiliation and little pain in return for gaining the allegiance of an alicorn princess?!” Twilight shuddered. “They’re fiendishly cunning.”
Pikachu rolled his eyes.
“Uh huh.”