My little Ranger - Shadows of Almia

by Jade Inkwell

an important mission on the 1-day interrship

Author's Note:

It took forever to think of some cutie marks for the vientown rangers. What do you think of them? Elaine's was my fave. R&R

Heart

Thank you for writing.

Voicemail, Voicemail!

We chose where we are going to move! It's a place called Chuckle Village in Almia. We can see you when you graduate!

silver wing

I was excited. Today was our 1 day internship. stood in front of the class like usual.

"Today, you'll finally be going on your 1-day internship. You will get to experience what it's like to be a real ranger, Operator or mechanic." Ms. April said "For that, you will have to go out to the facilities that you signed up for. Don't take any side trips on the way, and please be careful." Everypony got up to leave. I looked at Keith excitedly, Shield went to talk to Rythmi, Ms. April trotted over.

"Heart and Keith, you two are off to the ranger base in Vientown. That's where Crawford is." Ms. April told us "He's the ranger who left our outdoor class to go rescue a man time, remember?"

"Yes." We nodded

"Heart!" Rythmi called, we got up and stood, both of us ready to go."I'm trying out to become an operator, So I'm going off to the ranger union."

"I'm trying to be a mechanic, so I'm off to the union too." Shield said

"Oh, that reminds me. Today's newspaper had a special feature on the ranger union!" Rythmi showed me

"Cool!" I read though it quickly, before giving it back to Rythmi.

"The ranger union is really far from here. We'd better leave soon. See you this evening." Rythmi and Shield left. Keith joined me

"HeRt, you're off to Vientown too right?" Kieth asked

"Yes." I chuckled, he is so forgetful sometimes.

"Let's go together." Keith smiled

"Okay!" I nodded happily, we trotted our way to the entrance, there was a earth pony stallion up a tree crying with two Bidoof at it's base.

"Heeeelp me!" The stallion cried, we galloped over

"Hey, it's little Tim!" Keith said "Playing hide and seek with some Bidoof?"

"No, that's not it! Can't you tell by what you're seeing? These B-B-Bi-Bidoof are attacking me!" Little Tim cried "Listen to them. Beedehoo, Beedehoo! They're going to maul me, I can tell!"

"No, little Tim, I think the Bidoof just want to play." Keith said

"Sure, boy, that's easy for you to say. But I won't deny it. I'm scaed, even deathly a-scared of Pokémon!" Little Tim whimpered

"Awww, but these Bidoof are so cute..." Keith looked at me. "Heart, you've never met? That guy's little Tim. He's the milkman around here. He's seriously afraid of Pokémon, but they seem to like him. I'm suspecting its the smell of milking that make him a Pokémon magnet." Keith fell silent "Anyway...A Pokémon Ranger always steps up to lend a helping hoof. These Bidoof seem kind of Agitated though. They might be a bit tough. Let's split upy. You capture one, and I'll capture the other."

"Right!" We both capture a different Bidoof. Keith had been right, the one I captured was tough...we released the Bidoof.

"Okay, that's done." Keith looked up at Little Tim "Everything's under control. We've calmed the Bidoof and released them." Little Tim climbed down.

"Aiyiyi, that scared me a-plenty. I was good and scared, but I was saved. I was saved, but still good and scared." He sighed "But I owe both of you a big thanks. Those Bidoof were out to maul me. By the way...This here student seems to be a new face to me."

"This is Lighting Heart, who came here from Fiore. Heart's awesome at doing captures!" Keith said, I blushed slightly. "Second only to me even."

"Oh, a new student you say? Well, my new friend' Thank you ever so kindly for saving me. I run a small dairy farm with my family in a town called vientown." Little Tim said "You should come calling one day. It'd be like this. Our young'uns will be happy if you visit."

"Little Tim has a bunch of kids." Keith explained "His wife's famous around here too."

"I surely won't forget you saving me. You'll make fine rangers. I'm sure of that." With that, Little Tim went off.

"We're running late!" Keith said "Let's hurry to Vientown. We set off again, But Ms. April stopped us.

"Heart! Keith!" She called, just as we left the gates, she trotted over "You helped Little Tim with captures, I've heard. And instead of competing like usual, you even cooperated with each other. That's how real Rangers will act. Now, keep your chins up and off you go to Vientown as if you were real rangers!"

"Thanks Ms. April!" We rushed off. As we crossed the bridge there was a little filly.

"Who's that little filly?" Keith asked, we went over. "Hi there. What's up?"

"My big brother...he's not here..." She said, Keith and I looked around.

"Your big brother, huh?" Keith asked. "Who might that be?" A stallion from the other class trotted up behind us, his name was Ponte Marshmallow.

"Hi, what's going on?" He asked, Isaac come over too.

"Melody?" I saac asked, "Melody, is that you?"

"Hi Isaac!" the filly, Melody smiled. "I came to meet you!" she gave him a hug. Isaac hugged her back

"Melody! I told you not to. Didn't I say you're not allowed to leave Pueltown by yourself?" Isaac told her

"I'm sorry! I just wanted to see you..." Melody sighed

"Melody...You're still a little filly. That's why I worry about you so much." Isaac smiled and looked at us. "Well, let me introduce you to my friends. This is my little sister, Melody."

"I'm Ponte." Ponte smiled "And this is Keith and Lighting Heart. Nice to meet you, Melody!"

"Melody?" Isaac turned to his sister. "I'm not angry with you anymore. Thanks for coming to meet me. We'll go back together."

"Yep!" Melody smiled. Isaac and Ponte went ahead, Melody turned to us. "Bye, bye, big brother's friends." She then galloped after Isaac.

"We have to get moving too." Keith said "We'll look bad if we show up late!" We galloped off.

Soon, we stood in front of a ranger base.

"I'm pretty sure this is the town. Oh wow, my hearts starting to pound? How are you feeling?" Keith said

"Nervous, but it will be fine." I placed a hoof on him, we then trotted in.

"It's awfully quite...Isn't there anypony here?" Keith muttered, much louder he added "Hello? We're here from the ranger school! We're Keith and Lighting heart!"

"Oh, I'm sorry! I had to duck down for something, so I didn't see you come in." We saw a unicorn Operator, smiling at us."You must be the students for the 1-day internship. I had something for you, over here please." We went over . "Are you surprised by how quite our ranger base is?"

"Yeah, where is everypony?" I asked

"Everypony had to go out to handle a critical mission." The operator said

"Everypony had to go out? It must be one whopper of a crisis." Keith looked at me.

"Yes, yes it is. Some Bidoof...oh no..I can't force myself to say it" The operator flinched. "But anyway, I think I know who you are. Lighting heart and Keith from the ranger school. We've been told you were coming. Our leader left me a letter for you. Let me read it to you." She cleared her throat and lifted a letter with magic. "Welcome to the both of you. Here's a mission from the get go. I've left an extremely important parcel with our operator. Collect it from her and bring it to breeze hill, which is west of the town." She put the letter away. "That's it for the letter. I have the extremely important parcel right here fore you. Please don't tip it on its side, and never ever flip it upside down...please treat it with care." I took off and took the parcel with my hooves, being real careful wit it. The operator gave us directions and we then set off.

"I wonder what the mission parcel is...for such a critical mission I thought they would have everything?" I said as we left the base, Keith trotted next me whilst I flew.

"beats me." Keith said, he stretched, a relaxed smile on his face, I found myself gazing at hI'm. I turned away, blushing...oh boy...I had never seen him so relaxed before, it made him look cuter. "Are you okay Heart?"

"Yep!..but I-I'm worried. I hope the rangers and the Bidoof are okay." I said

"I'm sure they're fine!" Keith grinned, I looked at him, and smiled.

"Yeah...you're right. The best thing we can do is to get this parcel to them in o e piece." I said

"Oh look! The beach!" Keith galloped ahead, I sighed.

"Careful, Keith..." I fluttered after him.

"This place is great!" Keith smiled "It's beautiful!" He looked over at me."Er..." I laughed

"Wow, you can be childish sometimes." I smiled, I thought I saw Keith blush, but thought nothing of it. "Breeze hill is that way. Please don't leave me behind this time."

"Okay." He said, we headed to breeze hill, but we stopped by a old stallion with 3 Pokémon, Munchlax, Starkly and Pachirisu.

"Ah, Pachirisu, Pachirisu. So cute, so cute. What's wrong? What's wrong, Munchlax? You're not saying you're hungry already?" The old stallion said "Ah, Starly, Starly. Go on eat up all you like." The Pokémon moved closer to the man, he saw us. "The way you're dressed tells me you're students of the ranger school, yes? 1-day internship, I would guess."

"That's right." I nodded

"Well, then, let me give you a quick quiz that you'll find enlightening."He said "Here's my first question. What is a partner Pokémon?"

"Oh, that's an easy one!" Keith said "A partner pokemon is a especially friendly pokemon that always goes with a ranger."

"Ding-Ding. Correct! The rangers I know all said they met their first partners here at Nabiki beach!" The stallion said "Very well. Question two, A ranger can only have one pokemon as their one and only partner?"

"nope, that's not true!" Keith answered.

"Ding-ding! Right again ! A ranger will get opportunities to add a second partner and more as time goes on." The stallion smiled "But you can still only have one partner accompany you at one time. The others partner pokemon must remain patient at home."

"Wow, thanks!" I smiled "I learnt a lot!" Keith and I said good bye. Pachirisu and I caught each others eyes. I felt something strange, but I looked away and followed after Keith . We stopped at the bottom of some stairs.

"Breeze hill's probably just up these stairs." He said, he looked nervous."I wonder what kind of critical mission is going on up there...even I'm starting to feel kind of nervous."

"Well, lets go up..." I flew ahead, leading the way up. We soon reached the top.

"Oh, hey! Rangers!" Keith pointed out "There's Ranger Crawford from our outdoor class." I saw them too...but they didn't look as if they were on a critical mission."So, what do we do? Just go up and introduce ourselves, right?" This time Keith trotted over first, I followed him "He-Hellomeetcha..." They all turned and looked over. A largely built unicorn stallion of dark chestnut with a dark mane looked at his Pokémon, then trotted over. He had a ranger styler with a rock as his cutie mark.

"Did I just her you say 'hellomeetcha'? You're nervous?" He asked "Well' that's not hard to understand. This is, after all, a key mission. so... the extremely important parcel. I fully expect it to be safe."

"Right here sir!" I looked at the parcel I held in my hooves.

"Hand it ove, but be gentle." I gently placed the parcel down and landed next to Keith, but my wings remained open, It was rare I was ever allowed to use my wings at school."Alright Ponies! Gather 'round! Lunch's here!" Everypony gathered around as Stallion placed the parcel in the centre of a blanket that was lay out.

"I was getting impatient for this!" A mare said, she wasn't wearing a ranger uniform, I guessed she was a mechanic.

"Hahahahaha! Oh, the stunned looks on your faces!" Crawford laughed, pointing a hoof at them, I final saw his cutie mark. A capture disk spiking around around a what looked like a joke book, his eyes twinkled playfully."Remember me? I'm Crawford like, Crawford from your outdoor class. I'm sorry I had to cut that class short for handling that mission. Do you remember this? My partner Pokémon Budew." Budew smiled, the dark coated stallion returned to the head of blanket.

"Good work, both of you! This mission cleared. The name's Barlow. I'm the leader of this Ranger base." Barlow smiled, he looked at the pokemon next to him "This is my partner pokemon, Makuhita."

"Maku!" Makuhita said

"Oh, there's amother thing... this prank isn't my doing, Crawford there thought it up." Barlow said

"That's not fair, Leader!" Crawford looked at Barlow "You're the one who was going on about what a great idea it was!"

"Hi, I'm Luana!" A light hazel unicorn mare smiled, she was in a Ranger uniform, her cutie mark was a capture disk next to a rose with thorns.."I fell for this same 'Gotcha' prank a year ago. But in my case, the lunches were all mushed up from me swinging the parcel around! I'm pleased to meet you! This Buneary is my partner Pokémon. Isn't she a cutie?" Buneary smiled and bounced around.

"I'm not a Ranger. I'm a mechanic. My name's Elaine, but don't worry if you can't learn all these names at once." The last made smiled, she was a white earth pony with black splotches. Her cutie mark was a dismantled styler next to a screwdriver.

"Uh, um, I'm Keith! and this is Lighting Heart! We're, uh, reporting for 1-day internship duty. And ,uh, I wish I could have a partner Pokémon of my own one day."

"Me too!" I nodded, I closed my wings and smiled.

"On, starting to feel t ease now? sorry for tricking you two like that." Barlow smiled "It's become tradition for us. That's enough with the introductions leader! Let's feast on the extremely important parcel they kindly delivered!" Barlow said

"Yes, I'm famished!" Lunana smiled, the parcel was opened, Keith and I stared, mouth agap at the contents.

"The, let's get right down to it! Welcome to our trainee-welcome lunch!" Barlow smiled

"Wow, the food even looks delicious! It's not like last years!" Elaine said

"I'm sure glad to hear that!" Keith sighed

"Yeah!" I leaned closer to Keith. "You may claim you are better at captures, but I'm the best parcel carrier!" We brined and dug in. I stopped half way through and apple. Something felt wrong, I could tell by the wind. I opened my wings again. the breeze felt different...The rangers, Keith and Elaine hadn't felt it. I got up and slowly fluttered to the path that headed down the hill, a young stallion ran up.

"Help! Rangers!" He gasped "Po-Pokémon have got wild!" Barow galloped over to him.

"What seems to better the matter?" Barlow asked

"We were down on the beach when the Pokémon there started acting mean." The stallion explained "They've surround my marefriend and won't let her go!"

"Okay. I get the picture. We'll handle it from here." Barlow turned to everypony. "It's an emergency mission! We're taking a break from lunch. To Nabiki beach! Move it! Heart, Keith you too!"

"Roger!" We all coursed, I watched the rangers do their ranger poses, and galloped down to the beach.

"Heart, let's go!" Keith told me, I nodded and followed him.

I stopped beside Keith. We all looked down at the beach.

"We have to clear this mess up." Barlow said

"What happened to the Pokémon anyway?" Crawford asked

"They look like they could be dancing..." Elaine muttered

"They're friendly and docile usually." The old stallion from earlier said. "They're not like themselves." The 3 Pokémon from earlier and two shallow were circling a mare.

"Please! Do something! Hurry!" She cried. I nudged Keith with my wing, he looked at me.

"Heart?" He asked

"They look pained...whatever it is that made them act this way is hurting them..." I said, Keith looked thoughtful.

"Okay, Ponies, listen up!" Barlow said "Crawford and I will capture the shallow! Luana, Keith and Heart! You capture the other Pokémon! Keith and Heart, capture your barge Pokémon just like you learned at school." Keith and I finally made our ranger poses along with the other rangers. Mine involved me throwing my styler and flying loop before catching it. Kaith and Luana headed down. I was about to join them but I was stopped.

"They're good Pokémon really." the old stallion said "I don't know whats gotten into them. Pachirisu, Munchlax and Starly. They're adorable and reliable, too. Why, if I was arranger, I'd be honoured to have them all as my oartnr Pokémon. Yes, indeed, they are that good. I beg you, please calm them down!" I nodded, I followed my heart and went straight for Pachirisu.

"Capture on!" I lunched my capture disk. I had to save Pachirisu from the pain!

A little while later, all the Pokémon were capture and calm.

"How's it going ponies?" Barlow asked "Your vapotures successful?"

"You bet leader," Crawford nodded "How about you Luana?"

"I got hung up a little at the start, but I managed." Luana said " How about the students?"

"We students succeed with our captures, too." Keith smiled

"There appear to be no injuries to Pokémon or ponies." Elaine said, she had watched the captures.

"Good work ponies!" Barlow smiled "The Pokémon seemed to have calmed down, too. They're good to go. Let's release them." Barlow, Crawford, Luana and Keith released their Pokémon, but Pachirisu and I bonded beyond normal captures the moment the capture succeed. It was strange, but I completely trusted this Pokémon. I could tell this was no normal capture... Barlow and the others looked at me.

"What's the matter?" Barlow asked "Some pony must've taught you how to release Pokémon by now!"

"Yeah...but..." I looked at Pachirisu

"Chwa!" It smiled

"You've grown attached to that Pokémon?" Crawford smiled

"Yeah!" I smiled and held out my wings, Pachirisu jumped on and raced from one wing to another, it tickled!

"Thank you for saving my marefriend." The stallion smiled

"We heard strange noises from the sea. We noticed a big cargo ship pull away and disappear over the horizon. And then, all of a sudden I was surrounded by by Pokémon...I think they were startled by the cargo ship." the mare said

"Well, whatever happened, I'm glad to see you folks safe." Barlow turned to Crawford and Luana "Crawford, Luana, sweep the beach. Just to be on the safe side, all right?"

"Roger that leader!" Crawford nodded

"Understood." Luana smiled

"Heart and Keith, good work. You did well on your captures. Thanks in no small part to yon two, we managed to calm down those Pokémon. In the world of rangers, we call it ...mission clear!" Keith and I did our ranger poses, smiling. "Well, I be. You've already got Ranger poses! Looked good too. Anyway..Alright Ponies, we should head back to the ranger base." Barlow began to trot back, but stopped "Oh, hold it a second. We need to clean up after our lunch! Heart and Keith, you two can go back to base without us. To make up for that prank, we'll do the cleaning up. Sundown's coming soon. Let's move it ponies!" The rangers went off. Kaith and I headed back, I released Pachirisu, but it followed us. But stopped as we entered the ranger base.

"Well, the rest of the sandwiches we brought back have been 'cleared'. There's nothing else on the agenda. It's time we said goodbye to them." Barlow smiled "Heart and Keith, don't forget those captures you did today."

"It would be neat if the both of you were assigned to our base...We'll be sure to keep you busy delivering our lunches!" Crawford joked

"You know, Crawford was really looking forward to today." Luana smiled "He was saying how he would get to see those kids from outdoor class again."

"Your ranger poses were really cute!" Elaine said

"Everypony, thank you so much!" Keith said "We'll never forget all we experienced today, I'm sure of it. Thanks again and good-bye." Keith and I were about to leave, but an old stallion with a lab coat and glasses trotted in.

"Ah, what do we have here.? What is this gathering about?" The stallion saw us."Him? Your ranger school students? Ah, so you are! This is 1-day internship at this ranger base, I see. Come to tink of it, we had a young mare and stallion come the the ranger union on a 1-day had heard mind set on operator, and his on a mechanic. That cheerful pair. I do believe their names were,uh...Misery and lighting ...rod? something like that." He smiled. "Well, I've memorised for faces." I hope you two will give me the chance to work with you in the near future."

"Sure, bye!" I said as we left, only to bump into Pachirisu

"Oh, hey! You're one of those Pokémon!" Keih said, Barlow came out with Crawford.

"What's all the shouting out here?" Barlow asked "Is there a problem?Oh, a Pokémon from the beach?"

"Oh, I get it!" Crawford said, "I bet it came to see Heart because its happy about being captured!' Pachirisu jumped up happily.

"That sounds possible. But these two aren't Rangers yet. Not officially, anyway." Barlow looked at me and Pachirisu. "We can't permit you to have a partner pokemonr. I know how disappointing it is, but not this time. not now." Barlow stopped in a bought. "It's okay if you want to spend sometime together though. But be sure to release it before you go back to school."

"Thank you, com one Keith," I smiled, Pachirisu jumped on to my back and took off, Keith laughed and galloped after us.

Half way across the bridge, we stopped. Pachirisu slid down my tail, Keith and I turned to it.

"It's sad, but we have to wave bye-bye hto you here little guy." Keith told Pachirisu."Wonder if we'll ever meet again? It would be great if we could..."

"I'll see you again, promise." I told Pachirisu" Even if I am sent to another region." I smiled and hugged it, Pachirisu ran towards vientown, it looked back, before running off again. We turned to head back to school.

"Yoohooo! Wanna be Rangers!" A voice called, we saw Rythmia and Shield galloping over "You getting back now? How did it go as rangers?"

"It was like, wow!" Keith smiled at me "As soon as we got there we were assigned a mission. Oh ,but, it was top secret. Can't give out any details. Sorry."

"It sure was fun though." I added

"Well, we went through a whole lot too. Professor Hastings kept mistaking my name to be misery, for one thing." Rythmi said

"He kept calling me lighting rod!" Shield sighed, I giggled

"We know! we met him before we left." I smiled

"It's going to get dark soon. We should hurry. Let's report on our days later, who we get back." Rythmi said. "Ms. April will be waiting for us." We headed back to school.