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// A friend in need 
// Story: Equestrian Conjurer 
// by Lunafan1k 
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Life isn’t fair. Life is hard. I learned this harsh reality early on in my life. I was born an Eevee, like so many of my kind. I was impressionable, innocent, and just a happy and excited thing. I was with my brothers and sisters in a large pen, an adoption center of some kind in a city I forgot the name of. The humans would come in and play with us, some would even take my brothers and sisters with them. They looked so happy to have made new friends.

I wanted to go with a human too and have a lot of fun playing with them all day. Every time my brother or sister was chosen I was more and more excited, ‘I was going to be chosen next!’ I would think. Well one day it did happen, a young human boy had chosen me! My heart pounded in my chest as I pressed against his, wishing to only show him how much joy I had felt at finally being chosen that it felt it would burst from my chest!

And then something changed. In like what seemed like an instant I was no longer an Eevee, I had changed. I looked over myself in shock, I was now a shade of purple and less fluffy, and an odd power seemed to thrum through my body. I felt like I had completed something I wasn't even sure I was even aware of. I looked up into the human’s face with tears of joy, only to see eyes of disappointment and hatred.

“What the hell?!” He said. “I wanted an Eevee, not an Espeon!” He tossed me aside, I landed lightly on my paws but could only watch as the boy grabbed my sister and walked out of the store.

I stood there, puzzled, but I waited for them to come back. The rest of my brothers and sisters had found new friends, but I was overlooked. I waited until my happiness grew sour, bitterly waiting to be picked by some snobby human. In my time of idle waiting, I had learned to focus some of my power. I could lift a few small objects of my choosing and toss them around. I could also make small barriers not far from me, I found out what they were when someone tripped over it. I spent my days practicing my powers out of boredom and entertainment.

“Athena!” The old owners would shout, “Stop pestering the customers!” I would then strut away, my business done, and return to the cushion that was both my bed and thinking place. Athena. The old owners called me that a lot these days. Was it a name? A curse? I didn’t care, if it's a name then so be it, if it's a curse then I will make it mine. I curled up and went to sleep.

I was woken up to some young lady petting my head. I glared at her and forced her hand away with a paw. She thought it was cute. After some paperwork and being shoved into a box, I was taken from the only home I knew. I felt a slight sadness as I watched my old home vanish from sight, but perhaps this new life wouldn't be so bad.

I was wrong, of course. It just so happened that she was one of those ‘battle trainer’ types and was using me for my potential abilities rather than wanting to take me in and pamper me like no doubt my brothers and sisters enjoyed. I hated every bit of it. Especially those weird ball things. I managed to force my way out of the first one, but after that I would just catch them in my power and throw them back at her face. She soon stopped throwing things at me but I was forced to sit in her bag she carried all over.

We eventually got into a routine where she would wander into these grasses and would get attacked by a random pokemon. What’s a pokemon and why haven't I mentioned it until now? Because I don't care to explain so deal with it. Anyway, she would let me get a good look at it then bring out some other pokemon, a weird fire monkey thing, and have it blast the wild one away.

I was so confused by this ‘training’ process as we repeated this process hundreds of times a day, while my owner kept trying to teach me new tricks that she wants me to use. ‘No!’ I shook my head each time, instead focusing on making my two abilities even stronger just to spite her. I refused to be some tool for battle.

This continued for a few days, until one time the monkey was never called out to help and I was left standing there before the wild pokemon. It was just a large rat so I paid it no mind. “Espeon, use Psychic!” the lady had shouted. It clicked for me, this was my fight. The first true mark of a trainer’s skill in battle.

This is what it was all working towards, growing my strength to where I would prove my effectiveness in combat. I let my power flow through me, then summoned a barrier between myself and the rat instead.

“No! I said Psychic!” my so-called trainer yelled in frustration. She wanted Psychic? Fine, I'll show her Psychic. I picked up an old spoon that was discarded on the ground and threw it at her head. It made a satisfying thunk as it bounced off the spot between her eyes.

She, I never memorized her name, started with a P and had way too many syllables for me to care and she never called me by my name anyway so whatever, backed off in shock. I focused my attention to the rat and meowed that it should just go. It responded by attacking my barrier. I retaliated by dropping a boulder on it.

After that she had taken me to some weird facility to try and fix me. I don't know what she meant but it sounded bad. I looked around while she spoke to some taller humans and wound up in a weird lab of some kind. I looked back at the lady and she wasn’t paying me any attention. I grinned to myself as I hid around the corner and out of sight.

I pulled out the old spoon I had found during my first ‘battle’ and tossed it into the room randomly. I chuckled to myself at the expected bafflement of the humans. Instead there were shouts of panic as loud, ear piercing alarms and flashing lights started going off. The humans ran out of the room, the door sliding shut behind them leaving me and the flashing lights to ourselves.

With my paws covering my ears I looked around the room I found myself trapped in, soon noticing a weird thing in the middle of the room. It had what looked like a thick claw like a crab has, but in the small space between the claws was my old spoon. It appeared to be floating and jerking around wildly. Honestly it looked funny as it did so. The machine sparked, and there was a punch to my chest as a shock wave burst out.

I felt myself get thrown off my paws into the air, but in a sense of slow motion as I suddenly got pulled back forward. The spoon and the machine were engulfed in a strange swirling white vortex, and everything that wasn’t bolted down, including myself, was being pulled into it. As I came to the realization that my prank may not have been as harmless as I thought it was, I had just one thing I wished I could say.

“Oh.”