//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: To Manehattan. 
// Story: Pokémon of harmony 
// by Firefoxino 
//------------------------------//

We left Canterlot and took the East course towards Manehattan, we saluted the guards outside and went down the mountain following the path, the environment was starting to burst with activity thanks to the pokémon. “Seems like more and more are coming through.” I said looking around. 

“Agreed, look there are even some alola form!” Thomas said pointing to an alola Golem, the Golem was busy collecting rocks and metals for something. “What do you think it’s doing?”

“Dunno, maybe it’s preparing for a journey?” I proposed looking at the odd Golem.

“Possible. Not our problem though, let’s go and let’s keep in mind the alolan forms exist here too.” Thomas said looking back from the window of the cart.

The journey to the base of the mountain was simple and went off without a hitch, we reached the plains down below and started to follow the railroad sure that it would have brought us in Manehattan. After some time we stopped for lunch, we ate some fruits found around the little patches of vegetation that grew here and there. 

“Hey what’s that?” Thomas said pointing to a distant figure. “Is that a… Munchlax?” He guessed.

I looked at it too and recognized it as a Munchlax as well. “Sure is, but what is it doing?” I wondered. The Pokémon was sniffiing around left and right trying to find something, when it did it immediately dived down on a bush and disappeared. “Let’s go checking what it found.” I said, “Trixie! We are going out to check on a Pokémon!” I called out.

“Is that danger-what am I even saying of course it is.” She said tired with a long sigh. “Fine but don’t get into too much trouble.”

“Let’s go Thomas.” I said grabbing his hand, we ran towards the spot and looked around. We found a gaping hole in the bushes, we followed it until we reached a big area, it was filled with weird trees and countless Berries.

“The berries!” I shouted picking up  a Sytrus Berry, “They are here too!” I said and munched on it. It was incredibly good and delightful with a hinted taste of sourness just to add flavour. “So good…” I said.

“I agree.” Thomas replied with an Oran Berry. 

We remained there for a bit, when our stomachs were full we finally rested at the feet of a tree. “So good.” 

“Yep.”

“Alright.” I said after a minute of silence, “Let’s get as many of these as possible and bring them all to Trixie, maybe she will like them too!” I proposed. Thomas agreed and we started picking them, using our telekinesis we made it in seconds and we were back on track to the cart. We returned seeing Trixie cleaning the dishes and the pots, we put the berries we found down near the now extinguished fireplace. “Hey Trixie, look at what we found!” I said to her.

She turned around and looked at the berries. “And what are those things?” She asked.

“These are berries.” I simply replied.

“Uh, uh.” She said nodding her head.

“Yeah, uh they are special items that have some incredible uses, they are both food for Pokémon and very gamechanging items during a battle.” I told her.

“So they are edible?” She asked sniffing one of them, “I don’t like the smell.” 

“Well they are usually eaten by Pokémon…” Thomas said chiming in. “So maybe they are not edible for ponies?” 

“Possible.” I said sadly, I wanted her to try one. “Oh well, at least we have something to snack on.” 

That being said and done we resumed our travel, we continued until nightfall then we stopped at the side of the road to sleep. We were awoken by the sound of Pokémon, all around the cart there were dozens of little pokémon like Cleffa, Igglybuff and more. 

“What is happening?” I asked out loud.

“These Pokémon just appeared and started to push to get the berries.” Trixie said with a scold keeping the berries in the air with her magic. “They won’t get past me though!” Trixie left the berries afloat keeping them away from the rest of them. Unfortunately she didn’t expect Igglybuff to use Sing on her and soooo.

“Rooonf.” Trixie loudly snored, the berries started to fall down on the ground and the hungry Pokémon immediately rushed to pick all of them up as quickly as possible by their tiny paws.

Me and Thomas reached down and tried to savage the most from it, we didn’t want to attack them so we just collected the most berries and left them be. “What a disaster.” I muttered putting the berries away in a chest.

“You said it, and now we have to wait for Trixie.” Thomas said looking at the still sleeping unicorn.

“Sleep doesn’t last only 4 rounds maximum?” I said.

“Yeah, but in the anime it lasts hours.” Thomas countered.

“True. True.” I said nodding. “Soooooooooo.”

“Fine we can play chess.” He said immediately giving up.

“Yay.” 

After two hours of playing, I won by the way, Trixie finally woke up, we explained what happened and she was pretty pissed by the situation, unfortunately her anger couldn’t be vented cause all the Pokémons fled the area leaving us in a completely open and desert field of grass and nothingness.

We carried on with our journey we passed a roaming herd of Zebstrika and let them pass without a complaint, later on we found a giant rock in the middle of the road. “What now?” I asked, the terrain around the rock was too ruined for the cart.

“I can’t lift it.” Trixie said immediately. “We will have to redo the entire thing and go right at the previous crossroad. Sigh.” She said tired and annoyed.

Suddenly the boulder started to move and shift, we immediately backpaled and hid behind the cart. The entire boulder started to shake and then a ginormic leg made out of rock and crystal came out smashing on the ground creating a tremor. 

The entire boulder turned out to be a Gigalith sleeping, the giant looked at us uninterested and started to drift off to sleep. “HEY!” I called it. I felt it’s annoyance. “Can you please let us pass?” I tried. Again, annoyance.

“Pretty please?” I tried with cuteness, the giant rolled its head and got up letting us pass under its belly, then returned down to sleep once again. “Thanks!” Its emotion were both annoyance and a bit of amusement, possibly because I thanked it.

We made camp next to the railroad, we made a fire and ate. Nothing really important happened through the whole night and we woke up refreshed and ready to go, although I saw something a bit strange, Thomas was doing something behind a nearby tree he was in distraught and fear, then those two emotions changed suddenly and disappeared, they were both replaced by determination and rage.

“Hey…” I said intercepting him while he was walking back to the cart.

“Hey.” He replied. 

“You ok?” I asked putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“Yeah…” He said sounding unconvincing. “Peachy.” He shrugged my hand off and went inside.

‘What’s going on?’

The next day was training day, I trained by lifting and handling many boulders, then crushing them in dust, Thomas instead used a knife he took from the castle kitchen to create giant waves of psychic energies, they were strong enough to cut through solid stone and even managed to crack my barrier.

“You are very strong Thomas!” I said praising him.

“Thanks…” He said. 

“Uh, you sure you ok?” I asked him.

“YES!” He shouted in my face.

“What’s happening?” Trixie said attracted by the shout. 

“Nothing.” He said walking back on the cart slamming the door.

“Anne?” Trixie asked.

“I don’t know, I don’t really know.” I said to her. “But I will find out.” 

I walked in the cart with Thomas laying on his bed, his pillow over his face. I walked with purpose to his bed and threw the pillow away. “HEY!” He shouted by I interrupted him.

“What the hell is your problem!?” I shouted in his face. “What was that about?” I demanded to know.

“It was nothing!” He replied angered.

“Bullshit and you know it! What’s happening Thomas?” I asked him looking in his eyes.

“It’s nothing that you should concern yourself about.” He said slowly.

“Thomas… I’m your friend… Of course it concerns me.” I said sitting on his bed. 

“It’s. Nothing.” He continued headstrong.

“Please… whatever it is it cannot be that bad.” I tried to reason. Suddenly a white light engulfed me and blinded me, I fell down on the hard floor and rubbed my eyes before opening them, I saw Thomas on the bed huffing and puffing with extertetion, “Thomas…” I said finally understanding.

“As I said ’huff’ Nothing.” He continued.

“You are evolving, but you don’t want to.” I said returning on my feet.

“Yes, happy now?” He said looking at me, “I don’t want to be a Gardevoir Anne… I just don’t want to… Please help me.” He said with moisture in his eyes, I hugged him tightly and comforted him.

“Shhh. It will be ok, we will find your evolution stone.” I said keeping him still. I pushed him a bit away and looked at him, “No training for you until then, we can’t risk you evolving, you stay here and do absolutely nothing. Me and Trixie will search around for your stone we will find it.” I promised.

After that, I went outside and told everything to Trixie, I described to her the Dawn stone and she would keep an eye out for it. After that we continued our journey, fortunately only two more days were necessary to reach Manehattan. 

Fortune was on our side, we didn’t face any particular encounter be it by Pokémon or natural wildlife, with that done we finally reached Manehattan. The city was enormous much bigger than Canterlot, the entire city was basically New York but ponified. The very first thing I saw was that the railroad abruptly stopped, it was completely missing and the tracks were not just removed but completely eradicated from the ground. 

“Here we go.” I said already dreading what was coming for us.