Sunset Shimmer and the Land of Pokémon

by The Skyrunner


Mega Madness, Part 2

“Terrabyte, come on out!” Nelson half-shouted into the arena. Opposing the mega-evolved Lucario was the four-legged psychic Pokémon, metagross. Before much could be said, Nelson had already walked over to his Pokémon and attached a black band to Terrabyte’s left front leg that had a small, pale gemstone set in it. “I wish to show Sunset here what the power of Mega Evolution truly is, rather than a cheap one-sided sparring match.”

The guru nodded, smiling. “It has been a while since a good old-fashioned battle has taken place in these halls. You may proceed, guest.” Jason had taken the opportunity to use a small potion on his Lucario, healing him up for the second fight. “When you are both ready, you may begin.”

“With all due pleasure. Terrabyte, let’s do this!” Nelson tapped his keystone, and a brilliant violet aura erupted out of it.Similar to what happened with the Lucario, Terrabyte’s for shifted. He flew into the air, propelled by unseen forces as four new legs jutted out of his back. His four original legs became more akin to claws, and all four pointed forwards.

“That seems a little like overkill.” Sunset commented. Flandre simply looked at her trainer with a blank look, telling her to simply watch the battle. “Sorry.” The battle was soon underway, Terrabyte launching several high-powered psychic attacks and what seemed to just be flat-out lasers at his foe. The Lucario would respond with expertly timed counters and spheres of blue aura. Sunset was engrossed completely by the sights before her, often missing the commands of the trainers or what they said.

It was more than simple attacks in her mind. Each blast of energy, each punch and dodge of the battling Mega-Pokémon resonated with her innate magic. As a student under Celestia for so many years, she could start to see patterns and symbols in each attack; Pokémon moves were more than just techniques, she realized. They were this world’s form of magic! Sunset simply couldn’t see the signs of spellcasting when a normal-powered Pokémon used them. Even the Lucario’s physical attacks almost always had some form of magical augment on them.

Flandre busied herself with staring at the Pokémon who bested her. She knew she was outmatched by the older Pokémon, but that didn’t stop her from planning revenge.Knowing her strengths, she simply kept on staring at the fight in front of them, planning and planning.

The battle soon ended, however, with a victorious cheer from Nelson. Snapped out of her thoughts of magic and spells, Sunset saw the Lucario from before being returned to a Pokéball as it fainted from the fight. Within seconds after, the glowing aura left Terrabyte and returned him to his normal form.“Victorious Declaration: I, who is Terrabyte, have bested the opponent He who is Nelson engaged in combat with.”

Flandre clapped her paws together, glad for the outcome. She then scrambled up to Sunset’s head as the girl stood up to walk over to her friend. "That battle was intense. The Pokémon are alright, right?”

“Sarcastic Comment: I who is Terrabyte has never felt this much pain in his entire life.”

Nelson chuckled at his companion’s bluntness. "And that is why Terra is one of my go-to battlers. He’s helped me out of more than one jam back in Orre.” Nelson returned the large, spider-like creature to a Pokéball. “All of my team has. And that, Sunset, is better than any kind of power. The Strength-“

“Of friendship?” Sunset finished for him with a smirk. “I’m kind of well acquainted with the concept. Big thing back home and all that.”

“Well, yes.” Nelson answered sheepishly. Before they could comment further, the old man known as the Mega Evolution Guru approached them. He bowed slightly to Nelson.

“Marvelous! You do indeed know the strengths and limits of your bonds with your Pokémon. Thank you for sparring with my student, as I’m sure it was a valuable learning experience for him.” He turned to Sunset. “And to you, Miss, I hope you learned something about this particular method of battling while you were here.”

“I have. It was very thrilling and enlightening to watch the battle.” The Espurr above grabbed a strand of hair and pulled slightly. “Ow! And yes, I learned to monitor my own strength as well. Don’t worry, Flandre, I won’t put you in a battle like that again. ”The Pokémon made a noise of contentment, then curled back up. “At least, I won’t try to.”

“If you need a bit of extra help, well, here. Take this stone.” The Guru held out a small translucent sphere. It looked deceptively like a cat’s-eye marble, with a swirl of blues, greens, and pinks inside it, but after seeing two of these in action Sunset knew it was more than that. “I sense a potential inside you, Miss Sunset, and it would be a shame to see it wasted.”

“I don’t know, I mean, I’m still a new trainer and-“ She was silenced by Nelson’s hand on her shoulder. He motioned for her to take it. “Alright, then. Thank you, Sir.” Sunset reached out and touched the sphere, grabbing it and cradling it in her hand. The stone was warm, and Sunset could feel the power it held. She slipped the stone into her pocket, making a mental note to ask Crystal to make a glove for it or something.

“Now, to use it, you will need two more things.” The Guru said. “You will need a stone for your Pokémon, and more importantly,” He tapped sunset on her chest with his cane. “You need a strong bond with your Pokémon. Nothing can happen if you do not have the same faith in them as they do in you.” With that, the Guru walked off, administering to some of his students.

“Well, come on then, let’s go track down Crystal. Knowing her, she’s probably in some sort of clothing shop.” Sunset followed closely, her mind reviewing all of the information she’d learned from the Tower of Mastery. She had a working theory on Pokémon moves, and her own innate magic was itching to be put to use after being cooped up for so long. Perhaps, if her own magic could be used in this world…

Sunset shook her head. Not the time to think about this, after all. She had a friend to find. The streets of Shalour City were busy in the afternoon, people going about their business from shop to shop in the market district. Two heads of red and pink hair made their way into the city, searching for their dramatic companion.

When they did spy Crystal, Sunset surely wasn’t expecting her to be in the middle of a Pokémon battle. Rio held a calm stance across from what seemed to be a lioness with a long, straight mane the color of Sunset’s own hair. “What’s that one…?”Sunset asked herself, pulling out her Pokédex. She found the entry on Pyroar. “Huh. Fire type, proud, fast… sounds like my kind of Pokémon.”

Crystal’s opponent was clad in what could only be described as a blazing suit of red-orange, and their hair was done up to look like flames. Thick, opaque glasses of the same color hid half of their face from view. “Pyroar, use Will-O-Wisp!” The lioness responded by sending out several balls of ghostly blue fire at Rio. The frog was unable to dodge in time, and Sunset could see several burns adorn the creature’s body from the attack.

“That’s not good.” Nelson said. “A burn won’t just hurt over time, it’ll hurt as Rio moves. He’ll be weaker.”

Sunset seemed concerned for a second, then looked to Nelson with confusion. “Wait a minute. Rio is a water type, right? How could he get burned?”

“Human bodies are made up of mostly water, yet we can get burned.”

“Oh. Right.”

Crystal, oblivious to her friends, commanded Rio with a graceful “Rio, Water Shuriken, and aim high!” Two blades of water appeared in Rio’s hands, and the frog-warrior sent them spinning upwards. Her opponent laughed at her tactics, preparing for another move, but not before Crystal’s next command. “Double Team! Hit that Pyroar with everything you have!” Rio’s body split into multiples, each shadowy image concealing his real location.

“Wait, what’s he doing?” Sunset said. Nelson simply gestured to watch. In seconds, each clone of Rio would jump in turn and grab the flying water shuriken, and use them as melee weapons to attack. The clone would then throw them to another one, who was ready to jump in. The whole move seemed to drag on forever, but was over in a few short seconds.

“I do believe that the match is mine, good sir.” Crystal said, walking over to Rio as the Pyroar fell over wand was returned to its Pokéball shortly after.“ Though, I will have to decline your offer on joining your little team. Red was so last season.” And with that, she took Rio by his arm and left the man, who screamed and ran, swearing revenge.

“Who was that guy, anyway?” Nelson asked.

“Some pompous idiot who was with Team Flare, or whatever. Said that only the most fabulous will have a place in the world, but, well, we all know what happened last year and why that won’t be.” Crystal reached into her bag and pulled out a small medicine bottle.“Now hold still, Rio, this will only sting for a second.”

“What happened last year?” Sunset asked.

“We’ll tell you over lunch.” Nelson said. “I’m starving.”

“Oh, I found this lovely place just down the road, it looks fabulous!”