Rescuing Rainbow
_____________________________________________________________________
A group of Weedle were munching on a bunch of leafs that had fallen near them.
There was a flash of purple light and they all scattered.
When the light faded, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Flutteshy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were standing there.
“So this here is Kanto,” the orange mare asked looking around at the clearing of trees they’d appeared in. “Don’t look too much like the woods in Equestria.”
“Be on your guard, everypony,” Twilight said, narrowing her eyes as she looked around. “This world is full of creatures the likes of which Equestria has never seen.”
“So... um... where do we start looking for Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked timidly, looking around them with unease. “I-I just wanna get back to Equestria as soon as possible.”
“Yeah!” Pinkie said, punching the air with a hoof. “And once we’ve found her we can have a party!”
The other four mares started to move, when Twilight held up a hoof.
“Hold on, girls,” she said, walking in front them and stopping as she faced them. “If we go charging in looking the way we do know, we’ll end up just like Rainbow Dash.”
“You don’t think that... what did Celestia call them again?” Rarity asked, turning to Applejack.
“Hu-ma-ns, I thank,” she said, frowning. “Strange thang to call yer kind if’n ya ask me.’
“Yes,” the white unicorn nodded, turning back to Twilight. “You don’t think that hu-ma-n will have hurt Rainbow Dash, do you dear?”
“I don’t know what to think, Rarity,” Twilight shook her head. “But if we’re going to find Rainbow Dash, we’ll need to blend in with the populace.”
“We’ve gotta what?” Applejack tilted her head. “An’ just how in Celestia’s name are we gonna do that?”
Twilight closed her eyes as her horn glowed with a bright purple light.
When it faded, they’d all taken on shapes reminiscent of the human Twilight had seen the last time she’d come here, only with their own mane styles and eyes the same.
“My... word,” Rarity said, looking at the claws on her hands that humans called hands and fingers. “This is... very strange.”
“Wow! Look at this!” Pinkie cried, wiggling her fingers like tiny snakes. “I like these. Twilight, when we get back, can you give me soma these?”
Twilight, shook her head.
“Come on,” she said, walking with a little difficulty as she was now on only two legs. “We gotta find Rainbow Dash.”
“And just how’re we gonna do that?” Applejack asked, struggling to stay upright as she walked.
“Easy,” she said, holding up the Ultra Ball she’d caught the Nidoking (now an honorary memeber of the Royal Guard, that she'd bring back to Equestia when they were done since Twilight didn't want to bring it back to this world after what she'd learned about it) the had stopped the Changeling invasion within. “All we’ve got to do is find somepony... sorry, they don’t say that here... somebody who can tell us if anyone’s been using a Pokémon that looks like a pony with a rainbow mane and tail.”
“Well, how hard can that be?” Rarity asked.
_____________________________________________________________________
“Now, Rainbow Dash, use Sonic Rainboom!” Misty shouted, the roar of the crowd almost deafening the sound of her voice.
Rainbow leaped to the side, just dodging Agron’s Megapunch, gasping for breath.
Where are you, girls? she sobbed in her mind, leaping high into the air, getting ready for her signature move. I wanna go home.
It had been over a month since she and Twilight had come to Kanto to retrieve the Elements after Chrysalis had sent them here.
She’d found her own Element awhile back, but she didn’t know where the others were, nor where her friends were.
As she made impact with Agron, the Sonic Rainboom exploding from behind her, her mind went back to the last month and all she’d been forced to go through since then.
Rainbow was in a world of blackness. She couldn’t move. It felt like she’d been scrunch into the featal position. No matter what she tried though, she couldn’t move.
“Twilight?” Rainbow called out, unsure what was going around outside her confinement. “Where’d you go? The fate of Equestria depends on us. Twilight! Twilight?”
She suddenly was engulfed by a bright light and felt able to move again as her body stretched out.
When she looked around she was still in Kanto.
“Twilight?” she called, her voice shaking with a bit of nerves. “Where are you?”
“Looks like I got you after all.”
Rainbow whirled around to see the female thing from before, grinning down at her.
“Wh-what’s going on?” she asked, looking around frantically. “Wh-where’s my friend?”
The creature just grinned. “Don’t know. But you’re my Pokémon now.”
Rainbow snarled. “Get bucked! I’m not anypony’s. Now, I’m gonna go find my friend!”
Rainbow shot into the air, intent on flying away.
“Return!” the creature called out.
Yeah, right, Rainbow scoffed. Like I’m gonna— Hey! What’s happening?
She’d felt a warm beam hit her flank. The warm quickly spread throughout her body and then she was back in the same position and darkness as before.
“Hey! What’s the big deal?” she shouted.
“Oh, you can’t go anywhere now,” the creature’s voice said from within the darkness, muffled. “You’re mine now and I’m never letting you go. A Pokémon like you is just too rare.”
“What in Celestia’s name is a Pokémon?” the cyan mare shouted back, feeling very annoyed now.
_____________________________________________________________________
“Ah!” Rainbow shouted as she ran from the herd of wild Sneasel, her wings pinned to her sides by an Ice Beam one of them had thrown at her. “Misty, please help!”
A torrent of flames barely missed the panicked mare, slamming into the wild Pokemon and sending them running.
Rainbow Dash panted as she slowly walked towards Misty, her Garadous waiting behind her.
Rainbow hated her life. It had been a week and while she’d learned more about this world, she couldn’t convince her so-called trainer that she wasn’t a Pokémon and that she wasn’t meant for battles.
“Please, Misty,” the mare begged, falling to her stomach. “Please just let me go home. I’ve friends and family. I don’t belong here.”
“Didn’t believe it then, don’t believe it now,” Misty said, folding her arms. “Ash is always going on about how cool his new adventures in Hoehn are and I need something to make him jealous. You’re the perfect thing, Rainbow Dash. You just need to grow some backbone.”
“I have backbone,” Dash whimpered as she slumped her head down. “But the things you make Pokémon do here are things we’d never make any creature do in Equestria.”
“Sure, Equestria,” Misty’s sarcastic tone told Dash it was pointless to keep trying to make her see reason.
Later that night, Rainbow Dash cried herself to sleep, her neck sporting a collar and leash so she wouldn’t fly away.
Where are you guys? she thought as her tears pooled by her muzzle. Twilight, why did you leave me? Why haven’t you come back for me? Don’t you care about me anymore?
_____________________________________________________________________
“Find anything?” Applejack asked Twilight as she was typing away on what the hu-ma-ns called a computer.
“Here,” Twilight said and the others all gathered around.
On the screen was the picture of the girl Twilight had flown passed when she’d been running away from Nidoking that first time.
Her name was apparently Misty.
She was standing in a stadium-like place. In front of her was what was called a Blaziken and Rainbow Dash.
“This is a picture from a paper posted last week,” Twilight said, bringing the article up. “Cerulean Gym Leader, Misty, wins again with her prized rare Pokémon, Rainbow Dash. Though information about this Pokémon is still shrouded in mystery, Professor Samuel J. Oak will be studying this new scientific discovery after Misty finishing competing in the Saffron City Pokémon Tournament.”
Fluttershy sobbed. “She looks so sad,” she said, looking at Rainbow Dash.
Indeed, Rainbow was crying in the photo, though Twilight suspected all the humans would just think she was happy she’d one the battle.
This world disgusted Twilight to no end. Animals were made to fight each other and none of the humans seemed to this was wrong.
She was looking forward to getting Rainbow, returning to Equestria and sealing this world off for the rest of eternity.
“Come on,” she said, getting up, her face determined. “Let’s go to Saffron City. We’re getting Rainbow back!”
_____________________________________________________________________
“Agron is unable to battle,” the referee said, holding up a green flag, pointed at Rainbow. “Rainbow Dash wins.”
“Another stunning display of the amazing power of Misty’s Rainbow Dash!” a voice boomed across the stadium, heard over the roars of the crowd. “Wherever the Cerulean Gym leader found this strange Pokémon, it was the most amazing find.”
“I’m not a Pokémon,” Dash sobbed, closing her eyes. “Why won’t any of them believe me?”
“What will Jason’s next Pokémon be and will it stand a chance against Rainbow Dash?”
The human, Jason, a male around Misty’s age with short brown hair, wearing close the were a reflection of Misty, only in reverse, threw a Pokéball into the air, shouting, “Go, Charizard!”
Rainbow cowered as the large orange dragon appeared in a flash of white and roared. It was huge. At least three times the size of a normal Charizard.
“Battle begin!” the referee shouted.
“Charizard, flamethrower!” Jason shouted.
Charizard roared and sent a torrent of flames at Rainbow Dash.
She leaped out of the way, but not before it singed the feathers of her wings.
She cried out in pain, falling to the ground. She was too tired to fight back anymore. She’d been fighting back for a month, hating herself every second.
Please, she begged, shutting her eyes as her tears leaked out and she felt the heat of Charizard’s next flame attack start to build up. Just get it over with. I don’t wanna be here anymore. Maybe I’ll see Twilight and the girls in the afterlife.
“STOP!”
The crowd went silent.
Rainbow’s eyes shot open wide. She knew that voice. She’d been begging to hear it for the last month, not sure if she’d ever hear it again.
She turned to see five humans standing in the doorway of Misty’s side of the arena. At first she didn’t recognize them, but then she saw their hair styles. They were the same as the mane styles of her friends.
“Guys,” she sobbed, a weak smile spreading across her face. “You came. You finally came.”
“Well, this is interesting, folks,” the announcer’s voice said across the stadium. “Five girls have come onto the stadium, demanding a stop to the battle. Do they have a reason for this?”
“Oh, you bet we do,” the human that was clearly Applejack said, her eyes looked on Misty in a hate-filled glared.
Rainbow almost cheered. She’d never thought she’d be so happy to hear that twang in Applejack’s voice.
“Let our friend Rainbow Dash go now, or else, Misty of Cerulean,” Twilight demanded, pointing at Misty.
Misty scowled. “And what right do you have to demand that? She’s my Pokémon and you have no right to say otherwise.”
“Oh, we have all the right to say so, believe me,” Rarity said, her eyes narrowed at the human who’d kept Rainbow Dash captive for so long.
There was a flash of purple light and when it faded, Rainbow’s friends had all returned to their pony forms, Twilight’s tiara with her Element of Magic on her head and the others’ necklaces with their own Element around their necks.
The crowd gasped.
“Well, this is amazing, ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer’s voice shouted in shock. “The five girls that came onto the field have all turned into Pokémon much like Rainbow Dash. What could this mean?”
“It means, shut up and sleep, you heartless humans!” Twilight shouted, hers and Rarity’s horns glowing.
There was a flash of blue and purple. When it faded, every human in the stadium and Carizard had all fallen asleep.
The five ponies galloped to their friend.
“Rainbow, are you okay?” Twilight asked, leaning down to Rainbow’s muzzle. “I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I did that to you. I promise I’ll never leave you behind again.”
Rainbow wanted to be mad. Twilight had totally forgotten her and left her to the mercy of Misty.
But she didn’t care. She’d thought she’d never see that stupid egghead lavender unicorn again and now she was here, right in front of her.
She embraced Twilight, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed into her face.
“They’re horrible, Twilight,” she sobbed, her body shaking with each breath. “They made me fight and hurt so many animals. I feel like a betrayed all ponies!”
“It’s not your fault, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said as their friends surrounded them and pulled them into a group hug. “This world is horrible. Even the Elements wouldn’t be able to save it. They’re too far gone.”
Rainbow nodded, twitching her head to Misty’s unconscious form.
Twilight’s horn glowed and the necklace with Rainbow’s Element on Loyalty came out of the back by Misty’s feet and clipped onto Rainbow Dash.
“Let’s go home, sugarcube,” Applejack said as they all held onto their shaking friend.
“Home,” Rainbow sobbed, a smile crossing her muzzle. “I’m going home. Thank Celestia. I never thought I’d see it again.”
There was a flash of light as the Elements united their powers and they all were gone.