//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Friendship, magic and pokémon // by daniboyi //------------------------------// End of last chapter: “Ash. I challenge you to a pokémon battle!” A deep silence followed. ------------------ Ash stood in the silence and looked shocked at Pinkie and he asked “What?” She giggled amused and repeated “I said I wish to battle with you pokémon silly.” “Are you sure Pinkie?” Ash asked, now all serious “Remember I’m the champion in my land and I will not go easy on you, because you’re my marefriend.” She rolled her eyes and said “Of course you wouldn’t. That is why I want to battle you! It’s going to be so much fun and exciting! Plus I want to get to know your pokémon better. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine! And what better way to get to know a pony. Eerrgh pokémon than battling with it? You said yourself that a battle gives a major bond between pokémon and ponies!” Ash sighed, but smiled. Then he faced the crowd, who had been watching the two discussing and said “What do you folks say? Would you like to see a real pokémon battle for once?” The crowd cheered immediately and Ash turned to the princess and said “And then I can keep my promise about showing you the true power of my team.” Celestia nodded with a smile. Pinkie was, behind him, bouncing happily up and down, while she gave small squeals of happiness. She immediately ran over and hugged Ash from behind as she chanted “Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!” Ash laughed, clearly happy about her happiness. He looked over the crowd and asked “So anypony wants to help me set up a battlefield?” Most of the ponies nodded in eagerness and together most of the town followed Ash towards the rock fields outside the town. An hour later stood Ash and Pinkie on each side of the battlefield, which had been created by the ponies under Ash’s instructions and guidance. Ash looked over at Pinkie and said with determination “Pinkie, since you don’t have any pokémon and I have six, I will let you choose three of my pokémons so it can be a three on three battle. The battle is first over when one of the pokémon is unable to battle or the trainer gives up. Do you agree on these terms?” Pinkie nodded happily, still bouncing up and down a little. Ash smiled at the sight, thinking that Pinkie was beautiful in both human and pony form. He shook his head and thought “Get in the game Ash. You can’t loose concentration.” He looked serious up at Pinkie and asked “So who do you choose as your partners Pinkie?” She smiled brightly to him and said with a bright voice “I choose Pikachu, Pigeot and Feraligator.” Ash rolled his eyes, again amused, as he thought that he should have guessed she would choose Feraligator as she has Gummy herself. He picked out the two pokéballs with the chosen pokémon and tossed them to her as Pikachu jumped down his shoulder and ran over to her. She sat down on her knees and petted Pikachu happily, as he pushed his head against her hand. She noticed the now thrown pokéballs, caught them with ease, looked confused at them and asked “How do I know which one if which?” Ash smiled and said “Pikachu can help you out with that one. He knows the team just as well as I do. Maybe even more since he can understand their language.” Pinkie nodded and again looked at Pikachu who jumped onto her shoulder and began to speak to her in his own language, and pointed towards the pokéballs and made several motions and body signs to communicate with her. After a few minutes looked Celestia, who stood at the place where the judge of the battle normally stood, at her and asked “Are you ready Pinkie?” She nodded happily and Celestia continued and spoke in a loud voice “The battle between Ash Ketchum and Pinkie Pie may begin. Each battler will use three pokémon and the first battler to loose all three have lost. Choose your first fighter!” As she ended, she shot a pink-purple beam in the air and encased the battlefield in a magic shield, so the battle couldn’t harm the watchers. Inside the shield Ash looked thoughtfully at Pinkie as she yelled “Pikachu! Let’s start this party!” He smiled, so she decided to throw the big guns first. He began to work a plan in his head “Ok… Pikachu is a electric, so Sceptile will have advantage over him with his grass type that only takes half damage, but I want to safe him for Feraligator and there is no way I sent Charizard in there. So it’s going to be…” He picked up one of his pokéballs from his belt and yelled “I choose you! Glalie!” The sudden chill followed by the ice pokémon appearance immediately took effect and lowered the temperature by five degrees at least. Pinkie reacted quickly, to Ash’s surprise, and yelled “Pikachu! Use thunderbolt!” Ash smiled at the predictable, yet still useful attack, and said “Counter with ice ball and then use hail.” Glalie obeyed immediately and shot a weak ice ball towards the thunderbolt, blocking it effectively and then his eyes glowed in a blue aura and small clouds suddenly appeared inside the dome and began to let small ice blocks fall onto the pokémon field. Pikachu let out a small cry in pain as the hail hit him hard, while Glalie appeared unaffected. Pinkie looked a little nervous, as she blocked the hail with her arm and yelled uncertainly “Pikachu! Try use agility!” Pikachu obeyed her command and ran around in high speed, wincing as the hail only hit him harder then before, because of the increased speed. Ash felt a little bad for his pokémon, but really didn’t blame Pinkie for it. It was normal to make bad decisions under stress and Pinkie was new to all this pokémon battling. To his surprise, she immediately followed her command with “And now use Iron Tail!” Pikachus tail began to glow white the instant she said it, and he jumped towards Glalie, who had frozen in shock over the sudden attack. Pikachu made several loops in the air, before he crashed his tail down directly at Glalie, who took a full hit directly. Glalie grunted in heavy pain as he crashed to the ground, leaving a pillar of dust standing in the air, Ash made a grimace, berating himself for underestimate Pikachu’s strength, even through he was with an inexperience trainer, and called out “Glalie! Use Blizzard!” Ash smiled as the wind began to pick up and heavy snow began to erupt behind Glalie and flew towards Pinkie and Pikachu, who both stood shaking, freezing to the bones. “P-Pikachu. U-Use T-Thunder!” Pikachu grimaced and summoned power enough to blast through the blizzard combined with the hail and shot a huge wave of lightning directly at Glalie, who cried out in pain, making Pinkie wince in guilt. Glalie let out some slow breaths of exhaustion and pain, while Pikachu was exhausted and freezing to the bones. Suddenly Glalie let out a slow groan in pain and fell to the ground, his eyes swirling. Celestia noticed this and called “Glalie is unable to continue! Pinkie and Pikachu is the winners!” Outside the dome “I can’t believe Pinkie beat Ash’s first pokémon! I thought he was a champion back in his land!” Twilight gasped, shocked. “But remember Sugarcube, that Ash always said Pikachu was his strongest team member. Pinkie made a really good choice with that pokémon.” Applejack reminded her, but her eyes also wide in shock. “I don’t care who win! This is SO AWESOME!!” Cried Rainbow Dash out in glee as her wide eyes was fixed on the dome. “I must admit, it certainly has its own excitement, even if it is quite brutish to make fights for entertainment like this…” Commented Rarity. “I just hope they are ok!” Cried Fluttershy out, worried out of her mind “That last one looked like it hurt a lot…” “I’m sure they ok Fluttershy. “ Assured Twilight her with a smile “Ash did said they can handle these kind of battles with ease and be up the next day.” “Still… I don’t like it…” She said with a small frown. “You don’t have to Fluttershy, just as long you accept it happens.” She said and turned back to the battle. Inside the dome again Ash grimaced as he recalled Glalie to his pokéball, he took a look at the pokéball and smiled warmly and said “I’m proud of you Glalie, you did good and there is no shame in loosing to Pikachu.” He looked up at Pinkie and said “I see you a better than I expected Pinkie. I’m proud, but sadly I can’t let you win this battle. I call Sceptile to battle!” He threw the pokéball up and in a bright flash of light stood the large green lizard with his two arms raised in a battle position. Ash, who didn’t want Pinkie to get a head start again, immediately called “Sceptile! Use agility followed by Leaf Blade!” Sceptile let out a hiss in eager and with incredible speed charge towards Pikachu, who was too tired and damage to dodge. Pinkie winced in regret and guilt as Pikachu was hit directly and sent flying into the energy shield. Pikachu slipped down and let out a groan in pain and exhaustion as his head fell down and his eyes swirled. “This round goes to Ash Ketchum and Sceptile!” Celestia called out, as Pinkie picked up Pikachu, gave him a light kiss on the forehead and whispered “Sorry I wasn’t good enough Pikachu.” She turned towards Ash and said “Ok… If I remember correctly grass was weak against flying, so I choose Pigeot!” With that she threw a pokéball in the air and out, in a flash of light, flew Pigeot. The huge eagle let out a cry and swayed slightly, before she stood still in the air. She sent a hard look down at Sceptile, who smirked cheekily back at her. Pinkie grabbed the silent opportunity and said loudly “Pigeot! Use a Wing Attack!” Pigeot let out another screech and with a sudden turn, blasted towards Sceptile with unbelievable speed as her wings shone in a bright white light. Sceptile smirked as he watched the eagle approach with great haste and made a leap into the air just before the eagle hit him, he looked down at Pigeot and shot several lanes of Bullet Seeds towards the bird. “Good job Sceptile! Now use Agility!” Sceptile smirked even more as he suddenly shot out of the air and towards the ground, as soon he hit the ground, he speeded up like a missile and left behind a green streak of light as he zoomed across the ground. Pigeot, who had returned to the air after recovering from the hit she took from the bullet seeds, looked around in anger, she let out a screech and began to fire several air cutters towards the locations Sceptile passed. The battle was now between the pokémon, they needed no orders from their trainers to know He managed to dodge each of them with unbelieving speed and jumped up in to the air, sending a direct Leaf Blade against Pigeot, which surprisingly enough hit dead on, making Pigeot screech in pain. “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no!” Muttered Pinkie from the other side of the field. Normally she could handle stressful situations very well, but this was very different. Her friends was getting hurt from her bad decisions and suffered from her mistakes and that thought alone was enough to almost make her cry. Ash, who was now fully absorbed into the battle, didn’t recognize his mare friend’s distress and yelled out “Ok Sceptile! Finish this off with well placed Solar Beam!” Sceptile gave a large grin, as his large seed looking things on his back began to glow in a bright light. He jumped into the air, so he was face to face with Pigeot, who had paled as she saw her defeat right in front of her. Sceptile gave a last smirk, before he fired the large beam, blasting Pigeot down from the skies and directly into the ground, giving a lot extra damage as the ground was literally made of rocks. As the dust cleared, the crowd saw Pigeot was out cold, as Sceptile stood, panting heavily, exhausted from the extra powerful Solar Beam, he just fired. “Pigeot is unable to battle!” Yelled Celestia, so the crowd could hear her “Ash Ketchum and Sceptile is victorious for this round!” The crowd cheered, finally getting into the spirit of the intense battle. Pinkie looked up nervously and called out weakly, afraid she would hurt another one of her friends “Come out Feraligator…” The large alligator looking pokémon was instantly summoned to the battlefield and looked ready to fight. He smirked evilly to Sceptile, who was tired, but looked confident, knowing about the type advantage he had and the fact he still had a lot more energy and power. Without a warning called Ash out “Sceptile! Start with a Leaf Blade!” Sceptile was in immediately action, charging towards Feraligator, who smiled confident and was ready to take action on Pinkie’s command. Pinkie, who saw the attack which would soon hit Feraligator, yells out “Dodge it and try a Mega Punch!” Feraligator, despise his large and normally slow nature on ground, dodged skilfully and sent a glowing fist down in Sceptile’s back, crashing him into the ground. Sceptile immediately responded with jumped up and away from Feraligator, snarling slightly at his own failure. Feraligator snickered quietly at the reaction and heard Pinkie command “Use Ice Fang!” He smiled brightly and jumped towards Sceptile, who paled immediately at the sight of his large strong jaw that was glowing in an ice blue colour. “EVADE IT SCEPTILE!” Yelled Ash quickly, knowing how devastating that jaw could be. Sceptile jumped quickly out of the way, leaving Feraligator to bite in a dust cloud. “Ok! Follow it by a bullet seed!” Giving Pinkie no time to react, Sceptile shoot several lanes of seeds in Feraligator’s side, making him wince in the pain of the effective grass move. Ash grinned slightly and called out “Continue with a Quick Attack combined with a Leaf Blade!” Sceptile grinned evilly at Feraligator, who took a battle stance again and waited for a command from Pinkie. She looked at Sceptile, who stormed with intense speed towards Feraligator, who looked mildly nervous from the super effective move approaching him. She gulped and called out “Try to dodge it!” Feraligator tried desperately to move out of the way, and was damn close to doing it, but Sceptile was a little to fast and with one of his arms, he hit him directly in the stomach with a greatly powered Leaf Blade. Feraligator grunted in pain, but fought through the pain and sent a powerful Hydro Pump into Sceptile’s side, sending him into the magical shield with a loud crash. Sceptile sneered a little and got up and looked at Feraligator with a harsh look, while the alligator pokémon smiled back at him, even if you could see the grass attacks had taken their toll on him. Ash, who could easily see that Sceptile was near his end, called out in a last try to take out his opponent “Sceptile! Use Solar Beam!” “Try to block it with Ice Beam!” Yelled Pinkie at the same time. Sceptile and Feraligator locked eyes and smirked as a chill began to form around Feraligator and Sceptile’s bulbs on his back began to glow in a bright white light. A few seconds later, they both opened their mouths and fired two incredible strong beams of pure white light and a light blue ice coloured one, they went against each other almost in an instant and crashed together in the middle of the field, creating a large explosion that sent both pokémon flying towards the shield walls. They clashed into the walls with a heavy grunt and both fell to the ground, their eyes swirling. The crowd was silenced in awe over the ending, until Celestia called out “Both battlers are unable to continue! And I hereby declare Ash Ketchum the winner of Equestrias first pokémon battle!” The crowd immediately went into a cheer that could easily be heard all the way down to Ponyville. The shield lowered instantly and Twilight and the other immediately jumped out of their seats to meet Pinkie and Ash, the latter walking over to Pinkie, who looked a little sad, but still smiled. Ash, who had noticed Pinkie’s sad look, pulled her into a hug and said with a comforting voice “You did great Pinkie. Believe it or not, but managing to knock out one of my team members in a battle for one who just had her first battle is an incredible achievement.” Her sad look immediately went away as she looked at him with a bright smile “You really think so?” As the others arrived to the two battlers. “You guys were awesome!” Cried Rainbow Dash out “I mean you should have seen it from our view! It was like Wham! Pow! And BOOM! I knew your pokémon was awesome! But that was totally mega awesome! There is no discussion! I got to have a race with Pidgeot soon!” Ash grins in return and says “Sure thing Dash, as long Pigeot agrees on it, but she have never said no to a challenge anyway.” “Ah agree with Rainbow. Ya team sure packs a punch.” Commented Applejack with a grin. She then looked at Pinkie and said “And don’t feel bad about losing sugar cube. Ya did ya best and we couldn’t ask for more.” Pinkie smiled back to her and said without the sadness “I know. I just wish Pikachu and the others wouldn’t have been hurt.” Ash smiled gently to her and cupped her chin between two fingers and said “Trust me Pinkie. I had troubles too with watching my friends get hurt in the start too, but I learned that they can take that and so much more. But I have a question. How did you know about the attack names and how they worked? I never fully explained that to anypony here.” Pinkie giggled a little and said with a slightly guilty smile “I… kind of spied on you when you trained with your pokémon each time and learned about the attacks that way.” The others looked kind of surprised at Pinkie, while Ash began to smile, before laughing quietly and says “Should have known that.” He looks at Pinkie with a smile and continues “Well Pinkie as said before, be proud of yourself. You studied your opponent before you went into a battle with him and also studied the choices of pokémon and what they could. Hell if you had a little more experience I think you could make a fantastic trainer.” Pinkie blushed red at this compliment, causing the group to laugh until they heard a voice behind them calling “Ash! Ash! Can I please speak with you for a moment?” He turned around to meet the pony who would speak to him and came face to face with the major of Ponyville. He smiled in a friendly matter to her and said “Hello mrs. Major. What do you want to speak about?” She smiled back to him as she said “Well, it is actually more of a request Ash. You see we are currently in work of a new building in Ponyville, but we lack behind schedule and are in need of extra workers, but sadly the company have nopony extra to lend in a helping hoof. You and your pokémon team have long time ago proven that you can be trusted, even if some of your pokémons are carnivores and I wondered if your pokémon would like to lend in a helping hand on the building, it would be most helpful and I promise you and your team will be paid good for your help.” Ash looked shocked at the offer, but then began to think about it and after a few seconds he answered “I will personally love to help mrs. Major, but it is also my pokémons decision to make as I’m not their master and they can make their own decisions. I will ask them tomorrow, when they are rested and healed probably, then you will get a respond if that is ok with you?” She smiled brightly and said “Of course it’s alright Ash. Just take you time. I can surely wait a few more days no problem.” Ash smiled thankfully to her and turned around to his friends again, who all smiled brightly to him, happy that he had gained an extra job to increase his income of bits. Pinkie walked directly up to him and kissed him soundly and said “Thank you for the awesome battle! It was so exciting. I mean not as exciting as a party for my first pokémon battle would be. Wait… That’s a great idea! Let’s hold a party!” She had immediately zoomed off, leaving the others behind, some of them a little confused over what just happened, and Ash chuckling, knowing very well they could expect a party within the next few hours. He quickly recalled his pokémon and said to the others “I go help Pinkie with this party of hers if it’s ok with you girls.” They all nodded silently and Ash was just about to walk towards the location Pinkie left too until he heard a familiar voice behind him. “Actually Ash, I would like to speak to you too for a minute if you don’t mind.” He smiled and turned around as he said “Of course Princess.” “If you will follow me quickly, this is not something the rest of Ponyville should hear about.” Ash raised an eyebrow in confusion, but followed her anyway. After a few minutes they were a good part away from all the others and Celestia turned to Ash and said “Ash, you remember I said that I knew you were from another world, because I felt the portal that brought you here in the first place right?” Ash nodded, and waited for her to continue. “While you and Pinkie had your contest, I once again felt this portal being used. There may very well be somepony from your world in ours now and I want you to go investigate it, so he or she will not panic and do something they may regret.” Ash nodded immediately, understanding the weight of the situation and said “Where were the person sent?” “Somewhere in the forest right outside Canterlot. I can’t explain why the portal suddenly changed place, but I know you can get there very fast with the help of one of your flying type pokémon.” “I’m on it princess.” He quickly pulled out the pokéball containing Charizard, knowing Pidgeot was not able to make the flight after her battle with Sceptile and summoned him. He looked around and saw Ash and waited for command. Ash looked at Charizard and said quickly, with a strong voice “There have been a new portal incident in a forest just outside Canterlot Charizard and I need you to fly me there as quickly as possible.” Charizard nodded to his trainer and let him jump onto his back, and soon they were flying towards Canterlots forest in a neck breaking speed. In another universe “Enjoy your company oh Chosen One. I have still many things I want too see about this new world and maybe this friend will help you explore it for me.”