I need to win. Twilight told herself. I need to beat Trixie. Since she had first met her, Trixie had been nothing but mean, but what she had pulled in her battle against Rainbow Dash was simply too much. Not only had she put Pidgeotto in senseless danger, she came frighteningly close to suffocating Rainbow Dash, and the entire audience as well. Somepony who acted with so little regard for the safety of others needed to be stopped at any cost.
But first she needed to get past Prism. He and his Nidorina had done quite well in the qualification rounds, but Twilight was confident that she and Bulbasaur would be able to defeat them.
The atmosphere in the arena had been changed drastically since the last battle ended. Many of the very young and very old attendees had left to get some fresh air, in some cases to ensure that the smoke hadn't had any ill effects on them. Much of the vibrancy that had been in the audience had deflated like a balloon, and the emcee didn't seem to be trying much to reinvigorate it.
"Welcome back to round two!" He said, still somewhat shaken up by the gassing. "Our next battle will be Prism versus Twilight Sparkle."
The stallion across from her flipped his white and purple mane with a chuckle. "It looks like our dear wizard friend has killed the mood. What say you we bring it back?" Prism came forward to the center of the stadium, extending his hoof outward. "Good luck, and may the best pony win."
Twilight walked forward and shook his hoof. "Good luck." Each combatant retreated to their side of the arena. The gesture had been small, but its effect was massive. The simple display of sportsmanship did wonders to reinvigorate the crowd. After the morally heinous show Trixie put on, the prospect of a clean, honorable battle reassured the audience and began to rebuild the lost enthusiasm.
"Nidorina, it's our time to shine!" Prism shouted.
"Bulbasaur! Let's show them how strong we are!" Twilight yelled back.
"Our next match is a battle of poison types!" The emcee declared, "Let's get this battle started!"
"Looks like our poison attacks aren't going to work." Prism said aloud, "It looks like we'll just have to resort to force. Go for a headbutt!" Nidorina charged headlong straight at Bulbasaur.
"Let's hit 'em with razor leaf!" Twilight shouted back. Bulbasaur started firing a barrage of bladed leaves from underneath its bulb, trying to stop the Nidorina's charge. Each leaf hit the poison pokémon square in the head, but it wasn't able to slow down the charging pokémon. Nidorina's hit landed, knocking Bulbasaur flying.
"Bulba…" Her pokémon groaned, laying on the dirt several feet from where he had been hit. The hit had been a strong one, and certainly had done a number on Bulbasaur.
"Looks like we're going to have to try something different, huh?" She sighed. "Bulbasaur, use ingrain!" Bulbasaur obeyed, laying down roots into the earth, slowly beginning to regain its strength.
"Ha, you're just making yourself an easier target!" Prism laughed with a smug grin. "Nidorina, go for another headbutt!" Nidorina began to charge again, barreling straight at the rooted Bulbasaur.
"Tie it up with vine whip!" She yelled. Bulbasaur's vines shot forth, wrapping themselves around Nidorina's hind legs. With a sudden jerk, Bulbasaur's long tendrils yanked Nidorina's feet from beneath her, leaving her totally vulnerable. "Now hit it with a leech seed!" Bulbasaur shot the parasitic seeds onto Nidorina, covering the pokemon with roots and draining her strength.
"Huh, looks like you're full of surprises." Prism laughed. "Nidorina, break the vines with double kick!" With two forceful kicks, Nidorina snapped the vines and began charging back at Bulbasaur.
"Don't give them an inch Bulbasaur!" Twilight commanded, "Use headbutt too!" Bulbasaur, from its rooted position, prepared to meet Nidorina force for force. Their skulls met with an audible crash, knocking Nidorina flying back. Bulbasaur, although hurt, was held down by his roots, and because of the restorative powers of ingrain and leech seed, was still looking relatively healthy. Meanwhile Nidorina was beginning to look worse for wear.
"Nidorina, are you okay?"
"Ni… nido… rina…" It wimpered.
"Sigh… you've done well friend. But it looks like we may be against a wall. What say you we end this with a bang?" He asked.
"Nido!" She answered enthusiastically.
"Very well! Let's finish this with our strongest move! Skull bash!" Nidorina braced its skull and began making a reckless charge at Bulbasaur. "It's going to take more than vines to stop this one!" Prism declared.
What do we have that can stop an attack like that? Twilight frantically thought through what moves Bulbasaur knew. But try as she might, she couldn't think of a single move that would be powerful enough.
"Bulba…" Bulbasaur groaned. "Bulba… bulba… bulba…"
"Bulbasaur, what are you doing?" Twilight asked.
"Incredible! It looks like Bulbasaur is charging a solarbeam!" The emcee excitedly announced.
"Solarbeam?" That was one of the strongest grass type moves in existence. Bulbasaur must have dug deep find enough power to use that attack. "Okay Bulbasaur, use your solarbeam!" Just as Nidorina was closing in on Bulbasaur, a concentrated lance of pure sunlight shot from within Bulbasaur's bulb. The beam stopped Nidorina dead in her tracks and sent her flying towards her trainer.
"Don't worry, I have you!" Prism cried. He stuck his hooves out and caught Nidorina, nearly getting knocked off his hooves by the forty pound pokémon.
Bulbasaur collapsed to the ground. The force of the solarbeam had forced his bulb open, revealing a large flower within.
"What an attack!" The emcee cried to huge cheers from the crowd. "Wait, what's this?" Bulbasaur found himself cloaked in a blinding white light, his body becoming engulfed in the glow. Twilight saw his body grow larger, and saw something rise from within his bulb
"Ivy… Ivy! Saur!" Bulbasaur had evolved. The sheer nova of energy it had released when it fired the solarbeam had triggered the process of evolution to occur
"What a conclusion! Bulbasaur has evolved into Ivysaur!" The emcee declared. The audience began cheering anew, sharing the joy Twilight felt.
"Ivysaur!" She happily cried. "How do you feel?"
"Saur! Ivysaur!" It happily barked.
This is how it was meant to happen. Twilight thought. A trainer and their pokémon working their absolute hardest and that effort manifests itself with evolution. We didn't force this. I knew Bulbasaur would evolve when he was ready. Looks like I was right. Twilight wrapped her hooves around her pokémon's neck. "You fought so hard that last battle Ivysaur. Thank you."
Twilight looked off to the contestant entrances to the arena and saw Trixie watching with disinterest from the sidelines. We're coming for you now Trixie. I won't let you get away with what you did to Pidgeotto. I'll prove to you that the bonds between my pokémon and I are stronger. I won't let you win.
How are you feeling Bulby?
Saur, Ivy Saur.
Zecora has a cream for that?
One more step on the road to Trixies slap down.
really hope this story ends wit trixie getting kicked out of the league licence revoked and her Pokemon taken away
Bulbasaur/Ivysaur used like six different moves in one battle. Darn protagonists and their rule-breaking tendencies.
7416958
Meh, the anime never really cared about the "4-moves only" rule. Which really doesn't make much sense to begin with.
The way I understand it, it's really more of a leftover from hardware limitations back in the olden days of Pokemon. By the time technology had advanced to a point where Nintendo could do away with the restriction, the Pokemon metagame was already starting to emerge, and coming up with efficient 4-move sets is a VERY large part of that.
I don't know how into the competitive scene you are, but having only 4 slots is a big deal, because not only does it mean you have to really understand your team and its weaknesses so you can come up with strategies and move sets to try to mitigate those weaknesses, but it also means your opponents don't necessarily know what your movesets will be. Even with only 4 slots, there are so many standard sets for each pokemon in competitive that you can usually know 2 or even 3 moves they will know simply because everyone uses them. It's those last 1 or 2 slots that will have to give them pause.
For instance, I love using Mega Altaria. 1 or 2 Dragon Dances + Hyper Voice boosted by the Pixillate ability tears through teams like a hot knife through butter. It's fairly safe to assume that an Altaria will have those 2 moves, since it doesn't really have enough power without the boost from Dragon Dance to be very effective in competitive. It's the other 2 moves that cause people to guess. Some people go for support moves, like Defog and Refresh. Others go for coverage moves to deal with weaknesses. Personally, I put Roost and Earthquake in the other two slots. I'll use Roost if I need to, but I won't use Earthquake so that they're left guessing what I have in the final move slot. If they send out a Poison or Steel type to try and take advantage of Mega Altaria's fairy weakness, only then will I use Earthquake, which is when they realize they've made a horrible, horrible miscalculation.
If you had, say, 6 slots, it would remove a lot of the skill and guesswork that makes the metagame so interesting in the first place.
tl;dr Pokemon's "4 move syndrome" started because of technological limitations, and has stayed in the games because it would screw up the metagame if they added more move slots.
It looks like Ivysaur does learn Solar Beam......at freaking level 56.
And by then it would have already been a Venusaur. Guess this story has a bit of Pokemon Anime Logic Syndrome.