//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Friendship, magic and pokémon // by daniboyi //------------------------------// Ash woke up next morning with a growling stomach, realizing the last time he ate anything was at breakfast yesterday. He groaned in hunger, almost feeling too weak to get out of bed. He noticed Pikachu was too awake next to him and he said “Are you hungry too Pikachu?” Pikachu nodded weakly and said “Pika…” The door suddenly slammed open and in walked Pinkie Pie, holding a plate with two sandwiches with her mouth. She placed them on the bed and said “Good morning Ash! I thought you were hungry since you didn’t got anything real to eat yesterday, except cupcakes and no pony can live of cupcakes all the time, even if it would be wonderful!” Ash smiled to her and said “Thank you Pinkie!” and looked down at his sandwich, it was two pieces of bread with several flowers and grass between. In human form Ash had found this disgusting, but in pony form it actually surprised him that is looked quite delicious, maybe it was his instincts kicking in… He looked over at Pikachus plate and noticed his was fried bread with a fried egg on top. He smiled, glad Pinkie thought that Pikachu didn’t eat plants like they did… That reminded him of something. Charizard and Feraligator… How would people react when he had to tell them he had two meat eaters on his team? He sighed and began to eat his sandwich, which was surprisingly delicious as it looked. After he was done, he felt happy and full again, surprised over how much a single sandwich could fill him. Maybe ponies just eat a lot less than humans do? He thought as he walked out of the door with Pikachu on his back. He walked downstairs and saw Twilight and Pinkie talking happily, he smiled, walked over and said “Hi Twilight, how are you doing?” Twilight turned to him and smiled “I’m fine thank you. How was your night? Did she keep you up for too long?” Ash smiled and winked to Pinkie Pie who giggled “Actually not. She showed me right to bed and even gave me breakfast in bed this morning” Twilight’s eyes opened in surprise and she turned to Pinkie Pie and said “Pinkie. I’m surprise. I didn’t know you could be so thoughtful” “Oh there are many things you don’t know about me Twilight” She said with a teasing smile, and bounced out of the shop, leaving a shocked Twilight behind. Ash followed Pinkie Pie and just before he walked out of the shop he said “Are you coming or what?” Twilight shook her head quickly and followed them out of the shop. Soon they were walking down the town main street, enjoying the good sunny weather and thanked Rainbow Dash in their minds for the good weather. They passed a small café and went it to get a quick snack and something to drink, as they sat down and Ash got his glass with crystal clear water and a bunch of flowers on a plate he looked at the two others and saw Twilight only had ordered a glass of apple juice and Pinkie had ordered a flower sandwich and a soda. He smiled and took a sip of his water and said “So is there anything special planned for today or just a relaxing day?” “Well. I promised Spike I would help him with something later” She looked up at the clock tower and gasped “Which is actually in a few minutes! I have to go now!” With that a flash appeared and she was gone. Ash stared in shock at the spot where Twilight just was and shook his head with a laugh and asked Pinkie “How about you and me hang out today then?” “Sure!” She said happily and quickly ate the last of her meal as Ash finished his, Pinkie paid for the meal, mainly because Ash didn’t have any bits yet and because she insisted, and they left. Pinkie began to show him around town and introduced him to many ponies. The first one they came past was a pony with a medium brown coat and a dark brown mane, his cutie mark was an hourglass. Pinkie walked over to him and said “Hello Dr. Whooves!” “Why hello Pinkie. How are you today?” He greeted happily. “I’m fine thank you. I’m just showing our new neighbor around town. His name is Ash Ketchum. Ash, this is Dr. Whooves. He is the one who makes and sells clocks around time and stands for managing the clock tower always shows the right time” “Honor to meet you” Ash said with a smile. Dr. Whooves laughed and said “The honor is mine Ash. Any friend of Pinkie is already proven good in my book” Dr. Whooves looked over Ash and saw Pikachu, his eyes opened in interest and said “Oh my. What kind of creature is this?” Ash smiled and said “His name is Pikachu, but his specie is called a pokémon. He comes from a far away country and are fairly unknown, few books are written about them and those books are quite hard to find. I used to live in that country, before I moved here” “Interesting…” He said with a smile and then looked at the clock tower and gasped “Sorry, but I have to get going! I have to finish a new flower shaped clock for Daisy before this afternoon and I still have much work to do!” With that he raced past them, with Pinkie yelling after him “Have a good day Doctor!” Ash looked at the way he just ran and said “Wow… He must be really busy sometimes” Pinkie giggled and said with her normal cheerful, excited voice “Sure he is! He is making all the clocks in town silly” Ash nodded in understanding, and let Pinkie lead him around Ponyville to meet new people. They met many different ponies like Daisy, who owned the flower shop in town, and Lyra, who surprised Ash, when she sat on a bench as any human would do, instead of lying down like a normal pony. It didn’t take long, before Pinkie looked up in the skies and muttered “Where is she?” “Who are you looking for Pinkie?” Ash asked confused and looked up in the skies. Not even a few seconds later a rather awkward voice came from behind him saying “Watch out!” He didn’t have time to react and felt the pony behind him crash into his back, sending him to the ground. “Ops! Sorry, my bad! I lost control after I almost hit a tree…” Ash looked up and turned around, and gasped in shock as he saw a grayish light blue pony with a faint yellow many and a set of twisted eyes that pointed in each direction. “H-Hey!” He said, a little nervous about her eyes. Behind him smiled Pinkie brightly and said “Hey Derpy! This is Ash Ketchum, he is new in town and I wanted to show him every pony so he can get lots of new friends!” Ash smiled at this. Derpy turned to Ash and said with a smile “Oh. I should have guessed you were new here. Hi my name is Ditzy Hooves, but all my friends call me Derpy because of my eyes and way to speak” “Isn’t that a little rude?” Asked Ash concerned with a raised eyebrow. “Nah!” she said with a happy smile “I really don’t mind, besides I know it’s in all good fun” Ash smiled to her, glad she wasn’t offended by it in any way. Pinkie Pie smiled to Derpy and said “So what are you doing Derpy? You don’t look like one delivering mail right now” She turned to Ash and said “Derpy is the one who delivers all the mail in Ponyville. She is super duper fantastic at the job!” Derpy blushed lightly at the praise and said “I’m just doing my job Pinkie, somehow I have to take care of Dinky” Her expression softened much, when she talked about Dinky. “Dinky?” Asked Ash, feeling a little left out. Derpy smiled to her and said “Dinky is my daughter. We live together, since her father… We really don’t want to talk about who he is, bad memories… left us. I manage fine to take care of us, even if it means we don’t have much time together as other families” Ash could easily see her small amount of sadness at this sentence, even if she tried to hide it, and silently promised himself that one day he would make sure she could spent more time with her daughter. Derpy suddenly said “Oh look at the time! I’m behind my schedule! I must go! Cya Pinkie. See you Ash!” And she flew away. “It’s kind of sad” Said Pinkie with a smile, even through you could hear her sadness “To not be able to see your daughter all the time you want, because you have to earn bits to live…” Ash nodded in agreement, only wishing he could help Derpy right now. He patted Pinkie on the shoulder and said “We’ll find a way to help her…” Pinkie didn’t say anything and just nodded, Ash missing the small blush appearing on her already high pink mane. Suddenly she smiled brightly and said “Come on! I have to show you something at Applejack’s place!” With that she grabbed his hoof again and they disappeared in a small pink cloud. Not even a few seconds later they both were outside the famous Sweet Apple Acres, looking at the big sign saying ‘Welcome’ Ash turned shocked to Pinkie Pie and said “How did we get here so fast?!” Pinkie giggled and said with a small amount of mischievous in her voice “You’ll find out someday…” and began to bounce into the farm, leaving a confused and slightly disturbed Ash behind. After a few seconds he shook his head and followed Pinkie into the farm, she smiled to him and opened the barn door and jumped in. Ash sighed, sometimes not getting Pinkies logic, but decided he should follow her, he didn’t have anything better to do as all the others was apparently busy today. He slowly neared the barn and thought he heard small whispers from the inside but shook it off. Even if it was true, it would probably be Pinkie talking to her self, she does that a lot. He slowly opened the barn door and was surprised to see total darkness. He walked in and closed the door behind him, as soon he did that the light turned on, surprising him and out of no where jumped a lot of ponies and yelled “SURPRISE!!” And down from the ceiling a banner hang and it spelled ‘Welcome to Ponyville Ash!’ Ash, after he came over his shock, smiled brightly and said “So this is why everypony was busy today!” He said happily “But didn’t we celebrate yesterday?” Pinkie Pie, who appeared on his side randomly, giggled and said “No you silly colt! Yesterday we had a ‘Equestria-is-saved’ party and a ‘Welcome-back-Luna” Party! Today we celebrate you moving into Ponyville!” She stated happily and quickly bounced towards the snack table. Ash just laughed at her antics and looked around with a smile, most ponies dancing to the music by Vinyl and others sitting around, drinking their punch and eating a cupcake or muffin, Derpy had several muffins in her grip as she flew happily over the crowd with a gleam in her eyes as she excited ate a chocolate muffin. Ash noticed Fluttershy sitting alone over at a table and felt a little bad for her, so he moved through the crowd and joined her. “Hey Fluttershy. Why are you sitting all alone?” He asked with a kind smile, trying not to be too loud as he knew she was very shy. She looked at him and gave a shy smile and said “I just don’t want to get in any ponies way…” Ash smile changed slowly into a look of comfort as he said “Fluttershy… Believe me when I say you won’t get in the way of any pony, how about you go over and talk to Twilight. She is standing alone too” True to his words stood Twilight out on the floor and looked around for someone to talk too. Fluttershy smiled to Ash thankfully for saying that as she was most comfortable around her friends and quickly left to join Twilight. Soon they were happily chatting. Ash smiled, glad he could help in some way and began walking over to the punch. He saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack sitting at a table and decided he might as well join them. As he sat down, looked Rainbow Dash at him with a smile and said “Hey Ash! How’s it hanging?” “I’m fine thank you. Enjoying the party and managed to get Fluttershy to go over and talk to Twilight” “That’s mighty fine of ya!” Applejack said with a smile “Ah know Fluttershy may need a little push sometimes. She’s to darn shy for her own good sometimes” Ash let out a small laugh in agreement, knowing she didn’t mean it in a bad way. Rainbow Dash looked at them with a smile, before taking another zip of her punch and saying “Well I’m off to the snack table before Pinkie and Derpy eats it all” With that she flew away, leaving Applejack and Ash for themselves. “So what are yer plans for now?” Ash looked at her surprised, he really hadn’t thought of that… He sighed and said “I don’t really know. I guess I have to get a job sooner or later. I can’t live as a burden for Pinkie and the cakes forever. Maybe in a few months I can get my own house” Applejack smiled at him and then sent him a calculating look before asking “How are yer physical strength Ash?” Ash looked at her curiously at the sudden question, but answered “I have a great fitness due to having traveled around the world for years in my own world and I work out daily so I can keep up with my pokémons training schedule” “Yeah. Ah noticed that. You are no Big Macintosh, but you are fairly well built and have more muscle than normal stallions” Ash couldn’t help but blush at the compliment. He had been told that by friends before, but never by a girl. Applejack, who didn’t notice continued “How woul’ ya like to come work at our farm to earn some bits?” Ash looked at Applejack with clear surprise and asked “Are you sure? Work at your farm?” “Ah’m quite sure we coul’ use some help from a fine working stallion like ya” She stated with a proud smile. Ash smiled happily to her and shook her hoof saying “That’s a deal Applejack! So when do I meet tomorrow?” Applejack let out a laugh and said “Right to the case heh? Ah like that. Ya meet tomorrow at seven. And just call me AJ. Most of ma friends does” “What are you two talking about?!” Said Pinkie Pie, who suddenly popped out in between them. Ash jumped away in shock, before he let out a breath in relief. “Pinkie. Please don’t scare me like that again! And AJ have just offered me a job at the Apple Acres to earn some bits” Pinkie smiled brightly to him and said “That’s great!” She turned to AJ and said happily “Thank you for giving Ash a place to work!” With that she pulled AJ into a big hug. Applejack just laughed and said “No big deal! Besides we’ll need that extra help as the big harvest is near and it takes too long to do with only two workers” Pinkie then released Applejack and hugged Ash, saying “I’m so happy for you! Just promise me you still have time to have some fun with me!” Ash returned the hug happily and said “Nothing in the world would make me do that” Applejack looked at the two with a knowingly smirk and just walked away, leaving the two friends for their own. The party was finally done later that night and Ash lied in his bed, thinking of his new friends and what adventures awaited him in this world.