//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 Hydreigon! // Story: Pokémon of harmony // by Firefoxino //------------------------------// With a mighty flash we found ourselves in what I thought was a central plaza of sort, already I could see the destruction the Hydreigon has caused, there were lots of houses destroyed, some had holes in the wall while others were completely destroyed. I couldn’t focus myself on it though, the Hydreigon was just over us flying and firing a steel coloured ray all around it with its main head while the other two fired Flamethrower everywhere else. The screams of countless ponies hit me like a freight train but more than that their emotions were like a tidal wave. They drowned me in their fear and despair, I had to use all my willpower to drown them out of my mind to focus but the experience was extremely disturbing nonetheless. “Anne, Thomas.” Celestia called, “Do you have any valuable information that could aid us?” “H-Hydreigon is a very strong pokémon, it being a dark type one also makes it immune to my psychic attack, Fairy type moves on the other hand are extremely efficient against it. While it does have three heads only the central one actually contain a brain the other two are absolutely brainless.” I explained. “Do you think our magic is of this “Psychic type”? It could explain why it is resilient to it.” Celestia theorized without losing sight of the dragon. “Possibly, I don’t know though.” I answered. “It’s near the hospital!” Celestia suddenly shouted. “On it!” I said and fired a Psycho Shock at it, as I thought it did nothing to it other than gaining its attention. The Hydreigon roared and flew towards us with incredible speed, while in air it started to fire it’s steely ray which Celestia blocked with a powerful shield of her own, the ray contacted with it and engulfed it completely but the shield held true. “You weren’t kidding, it is quite strong. I will need my sister for this.” She said and summoned a scroll that immediately caught fire with a darkish flame before disappearing. The hydreigon though didn’t remain there waiting, it immediately started to coat the entire plaza in flames. Fortunately Celestia was more than capable of protecting us but we couldn’t remain on the defensive forever. “We have to fight it!” Thomas shouted over the loud sound of the flames. “Princess! We have arrived!” Someone shouted, when the flames subsided we saw a contingent of guards galopping towards us as fast as they could. “No! Stay away you can’t harm it with magic!” Celestia shouted but it was for naught, the Hydreigon opened fire once again but this time the guards were in the way of it. Thomas jumped over Celestia and created a barrier between the fire and the guards safely protecting them from harm. “T-Thanks.” A guard said stuttering. “Go away this is not a foe we are prepared to face.” Celestia said creating yet another shield upon us. A loud pop resounded along the plaza and another pony exited from a teleport, she had a dark blue coat with a starry mane that, like Celestia’s, floated in a wind. She was taller than a normal pony but a bit shorter than Celestia, contrary to Celestia she didn’t radiate a soft warming feeling. Instead she put out a cold breeze that chilled the soul. “SISTER I HAVE ARRIVED!” She announced with a deafening voice. “Argh!” I screamed collapsing on the ground from the sheer volume. “Sister, please tone down your voice.” Celestia said somewhat calm. “There is no time for this, sister!” The other pony replied. “Luna please, calm down and listen we need a plan to deal with this fiend.” Celestia continued. “Guards you go away, this battle is too much for you.” She also ordered. “But-” The guard started but stopped against her glare. “Understood. Let’s go.” He said defeated, and started to retreat back to the castle. I managed to regain my balance and stood up once again. “Who is this?” Luna asked. “I’m Anne, pleasure, no time we have to fight let’s go.” I said blatantly, I didn’t have any time to waste on formal presentation. “Why you-!” Luna started enraged before a mighty torrent of flames interrupted her almost catching her if it wasn’t for Celestia she would have be probably injured. “we will talk later.” She finished with a glare. “Luna I need you to fire your most powerful Ice spell you have, we have to put it down now!” Celestia ordered while generating another shield. “I can’t keep this up forever.” “This dragon will face our wrath!” Luna shouted taking flight and exiting the shield, she started to zoom around the Hydreigon while also remaining distant enough to avoid its bites. She zapped the Pokémon with ice blue lasers that while effective were not enough to stop it. “You are a worthy opponent dragon but you will lose this battle!” She said charging her horn with another spell, this time the temperature of the plaza dropped down of several degrees and ice started to form on the ground. Then with a shout she unleashed her spell, a terrifying storm front generated from her and hit the Hydreigon with incredible force making it spin around in a vortex made out of ice shards. The dragon roared enraged and in pain, it tried to  use its flames to melt the ice but to no avail. “You rock Luna!” Thomas shouted enthusiastic. I wasn’t so convinced though, the Hydreigon stopped with its flames and that was concerning, when I saw all three of its mouths charging their steely ray I started to panic. Luna couldn’t move apparently to maintain the spell, and she couldn’t see the ray being charged inside the vortex either. “Watch out!” I shouted, but too late, the Hydreigon fired with all three of its mouths and a powerful ray collided with Luna sending her on the ground with a thunderous landing, the stone cracked under her and she yelped in pain. “LUNA!” Celestia shouted in horror. Immediately after the vortex ceased and the Hydreigon was free, we rushed to Luna’s side and helped her back up. “Luna are you ok?” Celestia asked worried. “I will be fine.” She replied tired. “But my wing is broken, dammit.” “I could try to burn it to death…” Celestia murmured darkly. “No can do.” I answered immediately. “Dragons are extremely resistant to fire, you wouldn’t do much damage.” I started to think, there had to be something that we could do, anything at all. “How about Moonblast?” Thomas proposed. “I don’t know how to fire one though.” I replied. “Unless…” “I have a plan.” I said abruptly. “Trixie I need you to distract the Hydreigon with your illusions. Luna, can you do a spell so that it seems like the moon is in the sky?” I asked. “I can do better, I can pull out the moon.” She said. “Seriously?” I asked shocked. “Of course, I am the Princess of the Night.” She replied, with pride I might add. “Do it.” I ordered filing my questions in the ‘Ask later’ folder. “But why?” She asked. “Exactly, why do you want to disturb the balance of the planet?” Celestia also asked. “I might be able to fire a Moonblast if I focus enough and the moon is out in the sky. Moonblast is a fairy type move and could defeat the Hydreigon. I just need time to focus and meditate.” I said ‘And start using a lot of Calm Mind as well’. “Sister?” Luna asked insecure. The Hydreigon was still over us but because we were still it ignored us for now. It instead focused on a fleeting unicorn filly who just exited a burning building, she coughed and breathed irregularly. The Pokémon opened its central mouth preparing another beam when suddenly a wide purple blade hit it in the back. “Hey I’m right here!” Thomas shouted exiting from under the shield. The Hydreigon, bothered by the sudden attack forgot about the filly and instead attacked Thomas which dodged and skipped away from the incoming rays. “Do it. If we have a chance to defeat this one than we must try.” Celestia said solemnly. “I will help your friend, Luna bring the Moon out, Anne…” She said and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Do your best.” I nodded, I sat down and started to collect my thoughts. Unbeknownst to me Luna light up her horn and started to call forth the Moon. THOMAS POV While Anne and Luna were doing their thing I started to fire some more Psycho Cut at the Hydreigon, fortunately I found some spare knives on the ground. ‘lots of them actually so maybe this one comes from a kitchen of a restaurant of some kind.’ The fact that I had to use some kind of blade to actually use one of my moves truly sucked but at least I had something. Princess Celestia, after talking with the others for a bit joined in, thanks to Trixie and her illusions she had enough time to charge a spell, with that done she shot up in the sky and started to fire a lot of giant fireballs against the Pokémon, the heat was so intense that some part of the plaza melted because of it but the Hydreigon wasn’t bothered by it. ‘Obviously, stupid dragon type.’ I thought. After another barrage of fireballs Celestia was obliged to dodge away from a cascade of what I finally managed to realize where Flashcannons. The Princess skillfully evaded the move, I on the other hand started fire two more Psycho Cut at the Hydreigon, I knew they weren’t effective at all but I could at least give some time to the Princess to catch her breath, my efforts were successful, as in gaining its attention. I quickly dodged another Flashcannon and ducked behind a fallen piece of wall to avoid getting roasted by the flamethrowers. I exited my cover and fired more Psycho Cut, in the meantime Princess Celestia readied another series of fireballs, she created them and stacked them around her. In the whole confusion though I almost forgot about the filly, I didn’t see her running away so I looked around and she was still there looking at the burning building. “Princess! Distract it some more I’m going to get the filly out of here!” I shouted at the top of my lungs hoping that she heard me. Most likely she did because an entire volley of fireballs hit the dragon all at once in its back. Now enraged the Hydreigon spun around and attacked the Princess. I ran and went near the little filly, she had a white coat with a red mane, both of them were in some part burned or blackened from the fire. “Hey, you need to get away.” I said nudging her. “Mom?” She said confused looking at me. “No, but I’m sure she is with the guards and searching for you.” i said calm. “Now come on you need to get away from-” “NO!” The filly suddenly screamed. “My mom is in there!” She said pointing at the burning house. Which just then collapsed in a roaring hellish sound of snapping wood and flames. I knew there couldn’t be a lot of chances for someone to survive that but the world wanted to confirm it by making the entire house explode in a thunderous fireball. “mom…?” She said weakly. I gritted my teeth and grabbed her from under her hooves and carried her that way. “NO! Leave me my mom needs me! She is in there we have to help her!” She said kicking with her legs. “I’m sorry…” I said. I continued to run, trying to ignore her cries, her screaming and her attempts to drive me off with magic. “I’m sorry, so sorry.” I continued to repeat to her, in the end she was sobbing and stopped trying to get off. I finally found a guard after some more running, he stopped me and asked me what was happening. “The filly here, she escaped from a burning building. Her parents were inside… They…” She started to scream and cry more, crushing my heart with her distraught voice. “I understand…” The guard said saddened, “come little one, we will protect you and then we will sort out this. Ok?” The guard said kneeling down. Then the filly did something I didn’t expect, she hugged me and continued to cry her heart out while squeezing me. I returned the hug, we remained like that for some time, until I saw the Sun going down and the Moon rising… “Make it pay.” ANNE POV After some more meditating I was ready, I opened my eyes but couldn’t find Thomas. I immediately panicked and looked around for him. “He went away carrying the filly with him.” Luna said from behind me, “The Moon is in position, do what you need to.” She ordered weakly, tired. The Moon was indeed in the sky, it was beautiful easily one of the most wonderful thing I ever seen in my life, a giant jewel of the sky. I saw it many times before now but one cannot just not stare at it every time, but I had a job to do. I clapped my hand in front of me and made a little space between them, then I tried to focus on myself, on my body my soul. ‘Already forgot of your life? Very good.’ I ignored the voice. ‘You can’t deny it. You betrayed yourself, you already forgot your real race.’ I couldn’t let it distract me. It was true though, I did started to look at myself as a Pokémon instead of a human. ‘When did I lose myself? Did I truly lost myself?’ I continued to think. ‘Not even a month here and she already gave up on her life, on her world and on her body. You. Are. A traitor.’ ‘It’s right. I didn’t even pass an entire year here and already I forgot to want to go home. But… where is home? Back in my house, in my city?’ Then I felt something, in the black of my mind where the voice was attacking me I could feel something. A presence, a friend someone that wanted me to be strong, to don’t doubt myself, to remind me that I was still Anne and to never give up. ‘My home is where I want it to be, I didn’t forget Earth. I didn’t forget myself, I changed it, the entire human life is a change. A change of opinion, a change of heart… all of those are what makes us, us. It only casually happened that I had to change my entire body. Do I want to really go back? Go back to the same boring life of a simple human? Here my dream is true, I encountered a pokémon! I AM one. I was a human but I am now a Pokémon. I may be a traitor for my race but I don’t care and you know why? Because I have my friends here with me, Trixie, Twilight, Summer, Fluttershy… Thomas… So little voice in my head I have one thing to say to you. F you.’ My internal monologue about my current situation finished I opened my eyes and found a pure ball of light between my hands, it was pulsing and was warm, filled with hopes and dreams. I held it in front of me and stared at it. ‘That’s it then? F to everything you were and all that? Forget everything and become Anne the Pokémon?’ “No… I’m changed, different, but I won’t forget. What I was, it’s me. What I am, it’s me. I am Anne, and that’s what and who I am.” The sphere warmed up some more. ‘I’m still me, and nobody not even you little voice will be able to make me doubt it. My life as a human is what made me, me. I will never forget it, now I will use that gift, the gift of life… to do what i believe is good, I will help this world, I will live in it. For me, and for all my friends!’ The ball in my hands became brighter, it shined with a powerful light, and filled me with a welcoming warmth. I looked in front of me and aimed at the Hydreigon. “MOONBLAST!” I shouted throwing the ball with both my hands in the Pokémon direction, the Hydreigon, too busy with the princess didn’t see it coming. But it surely felt it. With an immense roar of pain the dragon fell from the sky and dropped on the ground, there was an immense hole in its chest and in mere seconds it slumped down with a dying whimper before going still. “I-I did it.” I said shocked. “Indeed, that was wonderful, a truly spectacular magic attack, and I’m happy that my Moon gave you it’s power to defeat thy enemy.” Luna said. “It gave me power?” I said confused. She nodded, “Indeed, I don’t know how you did that, but I could feel it. It wanted for you to win today.” “Then,” I looked up, “Thank you.” “A truly wonderful magic, never before I witnessed such a thing. Anne,” Princess Celestia said, landing in front of me. “I believe you are a wonderful Pokémon, one that will make this world better, your light in your heart, it’s very similar to the one in my student.” She said solemnly. “Thank you Princess, but I couldn’t have done this by myself, Trixie.” I said and walked to my friend. “Thank you as well, I felt you, your reassurance your unspoken words of encouragement and your support. You helped me when I was doubting myself, thank you.” I said tearing up. “Always here to help my friend in every way I can. You are my assistant after all, and I’m grateful to be your friend.” She said hugging me back. I couldn’t hold it in anymore and so I cried in her chest. And I never felt better about it.