Currently, the fourth day of the Canterlot Tournament had reached its end with the final match coming to an end.
Because of this, the fifth and final day is closing in with high expectations. Mostly because the Top 3 will obviously be there along with Rainbow Dash and her Braviary which stunned the crowd by transforming into Rainbow-Braviary.
The trainers who weren't fatigued were still around, full of energy and ready to continue to tomorrow. Well, almost all of them. One pony, unfortunately, had reached her limit.
"Is it too late to leave now?" Rarity sighed, lying on the waiting room couch.
"Hm? What do you mean by that, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash flew over to her.
"I don't mean to kill your mood, darling but, I'm a bit worn out from this entire tournament. Especially what happened 2 days ago."
"If you're feeling fatigued, then you're free to leave and continue watching." BigTime Ben went up to Rarity, giving her the suggestion.
"Thank you. Besides. Rainbow Dash is the most excited for this. I've proven to everypony that I've come far as a trainer and defend my friends from any potential danger. I'd say I'm satisfied." Rarity nodded.
"Aw...Well, cheer me on, okay?" Rainbow asked.
"I certainly will. Now let's get some shuteye before tomorrow."
Leaving the waiting room, Rainbow Dash and Rarity joined their friends outside as Rarity told them that she would be leaving the tournament since she's satisfied with her current progress.
"Shame you couldn't continue onwards, Rarity," Fluttershy spoke.
"I wasn't in it to win in the first place, after all." She replied to Fluttershy. "I think I've made a fairly good impression in this entire tournament. Also...I'm a bit terrified of the Top 3."
"Hold on. If tomorrow's the final day, then what happens if two trainers are remaining at the last moment?" Scootaloo wondered.
"Then they have another match on the same day between the last two ponies to see who comes out on top," Ash explains.
"Which is gonna be me!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "I'm so excited!"
"From what I can tell, it'll be a 5v5 since its the final day." Twilight theorized. "Good thing you've got a total of 5 Pokemon with you."
"Yeah but uh...one of them isn't really skilled in battling." Rainbow Dash was referring to her Castform.
"Oh, right. You gonna let Castform battle?" Applejack asked. "Spitfire's most likely gonna back you into a corner, no doubt about it."
"Hmmrgh...I may not be able to battle with Castform, but I can have it set up some weather! That'll work! How does that sound, Castform?"
"Cast!"
"But uh...Castform's not super fast so I'm pretty worried that it'll get taken out before I even get the chance to use any weather."
"No need to worry. I can help with that." Ash suddenly replied to her. "I can help you train Castform up to prepare for tomorrow."
"Really? You'll do that Ash?!" Rainbow Dash flew up.
"Mhm. You're worried about Castform after all. So let's make sure that those worries can be put to rest. We can figure something out with Castform, even if it's not super-strong."
"Thanks, Ash!"
"Castform!"
To help Castform, Ash and Rainbow Dash would be practising in the Canterlot Gardens. Since that area has essentially become both a relaxation spot and a free battle area.
"Your Castform's sensitive to weather, right?" Ash asked Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah. Just the smallest thing can transform the little guy in an instant. Like this." Rainbow Dash used her hoof to pick up some snow, bringing it close to the Weather Pokemon.
"Cast...?" Castform's body cells were reacting to the snow as it felt like sneezing. Which it did. "FORM!" Once Castform sneezed, it immediately changed into its Snowy Form.
Not only that, but it ended up freezing everypony around it in an instant, showing just how irregular it is from an average Castform. It even summoned the weather effect of Hail by sneezing and changing forms, something no other Castform is physically capable of.
"Gh...T-T-T-Those are some sensitive cells..." Ash shivered as he was in an ice prison along with everypony else. "It's hh-hailing already too...?!"
"Pika...chu...!"
"N-N-Ninetales...Mystical Fire." Twilight commanded as she spoke through her teeth.
"T-Tales!" The Fox Pokemon melted the ice he was encased in, freeing himself. He did the same for the rest of his friends as they all fell flat on the ground, shaking with chills running through their body.
"Ugh...Thanks, Ninetales." Twilight sighed.
"Alright. So that's a pretty good start." Ash stood up.
"It is?" They all turned to him.
"Yep. Most Pokemon need to put a lot of focus into some of their ice moves in hopes of freezing their opponent. But Castform here can do it if it gets close to something cold. That's pretty impressive." Ash explained. "Plus it can uniquely cause weather effects.
"Pikachu."
"Castform..." The Weather Pokemon calmed down, returning to its normal state.
"If Castform can cause status and weather effects without using any moves...Wait, what are his moves?" Ash wondered.
"Hold on, let me check." Rainbow Dash pulled out her Pokedex to see what Castform is currently capable of.
"Tackle. Weather Ball."
"That's it?!" Rainbow Dash gasped. "Aww...."
"Two moves only? That's pretty rough." Goh winced.
"Weather Ball, huh? Hmm...it gets stronger and changes its typing depending on the weather and Castform can kinda cause weather effects without even using a move." Ash thought for a bit. "Here's what we'll do! We'll have Castform learn a weather-based move."
"Can we do it in time?" Rainbow Dash turned to him.
"Sure we can. We've got a lot of time before tomorrow. So let's make it count. And I've got a pretty good idea on what we can do. If Castform changes that easily, we'll have it use Weather Ball while it reacts to something. Might even learn a new move. How does Castform react to heat?"
"I've got that covered." Pinkie Pie stood up, taking out a Cindercake. "Here ya go, Castform." She brought up the Cindercake to Castform's face, showing everypony else how Castform reacts to anything related to heat.
"Form..."Castform closed its eyes as its body cells started to heat up all of a sudden with sweat dripping down. By reacting to the Cindercake, Castform entered its sunny form. The moment it transformed, the snow had been melted away along with Twilight and Starlight's mane's catching on fire.
And of course, Castform summoned Sunny Day without even having the move at its current disposal, making the already golden sun even brighter as the heat increased across Canterlot, warming everypony up.
"Ah-AH!" Twilight and Starlight screamed as they ran around frantically with a fire burning on top of them. Thankfully, Twilight's Cinccino put the flames out by using Aqua Tail.
"That's some fire. All the snow's gone." Applejack looked at how the flames melted away the snow in Canterlot Garden.
"Amazing.
"We've got ourselves a special Castform here. Let's try using Weather Ball with those Cindercakes." Ash was given a Cindercake by Pinkie Pie.
"Castform. Use Weather Ball!"
"Cast..." Castform formed a white ball of energy in front of it as it circled like a hurricane. Ash put the Cindercake up to Castform's face, allowing the Weather Pokemon's cells to act up, changing Castform into its Sunny Form.
Once it entered its Sunny Form, it actually affected the Weather Ball in front of it instead of everything else around Castform. Weather Ball gained a fiery aura from Castform's sudden change.
"Oh! It's working!" Fluttershy gasped as everypony's eyes widened, stunned at how that plan actually managed to work out. However, they noticed that the ball was getting bigger in size with Castform still pouring in a ton of energy.
"It's getting pretty big..." Pinkie backed up a bit along with her friends.
"Okay, Castform...I think that's good. You can cool off now." Rainbow Dash tried to get her Pokemon to halt the growing ball of fire.
"Cast...Castform!" Unfortunately, Castform was unable to stop the ball. It wasn't strong enough to do so. Instead, Castform unleashed the ball of fire, causing it to rocket into the air with ludicrous speeds.
"Holy cow! Check out that height!" Pinkie Pie gawked as everypony looked up in the sky, seeing how the ball of fire almost reached the clouds themselves. Eventually, the ball dispersed into nothing.
"Wow...I didn't know you could do that, Castform! You practically used a move without having a Fire move!" Rainbow Dash grabbed the Weather Pokemon.
"Cast."
"Let's try it again, but this time with some ice, okay?" Rainbow Dash looked for any leftover snow that was still around and hadn't been melted yet.
They began training up Castform by having it use Weather Ball whilst causing its body to react to Cindercakes and leftover snow.
In its Snowy Form, Castform created a chunk of ice with Weather Ball, whilst for the Rainy Form, they got a bottle of water and poured it on the Weather Pokemon, causing it to transform and summon some rain. Along with a sudden burst of water that made everypony here wet.
But Castform still hadn't learned a new move yet. Tackle and Weather Ball were all it still had currently. While they were able to get some good results in the form of the three random attacks Castform summons when reacting to something, it was still limited to just two moves and there's no telling if Castform will be able to react the same way once the battle against Spitfire happens.
"Still nothing yet. The attacks are good but..." Rainbow Dash grumbled.
"Learning new Pokemon moves can be difficult." Fluttershy sighed. "And Castform looks a bit cold now.
"Form..." Castform felt a chill due to the previous Ice attack it had performed.
"Ninetales. Warm-up Castform." Twilight commanded.
"Nine." The Fox Pokemon went up to the Weather Pokemon, breathing some fire on it to warm Castform. However, once Ninetales did this, something new ended up happening.
Instead of entering its Sunny Form, Castform's body was surrounded by a blue and purple light that suddenly transformed into an aura of fire that emanated out of Castform. This grabbed everypony's attention as they had never seen this before.
"Woah! What is this?!" Ash stood up.
"Pika?!"
"It's not its Sunny Form...but just an aura of fire around it." Twilight noticed. "Did it learn a new move?"
"Let me check!" Rainbow Dash took out her Pokedex to see if Castform had learned a new move.
And to their surprise, it did. This move was akin to that of Arceus's ability and plates.
"Reflect Type." The dex said.
"Reflect Type? What's that?" Rainbow Dash used her hoof to go into further detail on what this new move was.
"A Normal Type move. The user reflects the target’s type, making the user the same type as the target. Castform can learn this move via Egg breeding."
"Oh, yeah! I've heard of that move. But I've never seen it in action." Ash nodded his head. "A move that makes a Pokemon copy its opponent's type, huh? Pretty handy stuff."
"Pika!"
"It's just like Arceus's life plates," Twilight recalled what she learned about Arceus.
"Why didn't it turn into its Sunny Form, though? A flame was right next to it." Goh questioned.
"I guess it works differently with Pokemon moves," Twilight answered. "If that's the case, then this makes Castform's irregular cells harder to comprehend."
"No way...That's awesome! You're just full of surprises, aren't you Castform?!" Rainbow Dash squeed. "Let's try some other moves!"
"Form!"
"Use Reflect Type on uh...Pikachu!" Rainbow pointed her hoof at the Electric Mouse Pokemon.
"Pikachu?" Pikachu pointed at himself.
"Castform..." The Weather Pokemon faced the Electric-Type, summoning that same blue and purple aura around it. Pikachu's body was also surrounded by this aura as he felt a slight tingle in his body.
Castform had sparks of electricity fly out of its body as it had managed to shock everypony around him with 50,000 volts of lightning. It had indeed copied Pikachu's Electric-Typing.
"Oh yeah...it works..." Ash coughed up smoke as everyone's hair had been puffed up thanks to Castform.
"Cast!"
"We can use this. If we're going up against any of Spitfire's Pokemon, we can just copy their type and resist em. With a move like that and Castform's chaotic body, we can turn it around!" Rainbow Dash grinned.
"Actually, Rainbow Dash, I checked and there are two setbacks to Reflect Type." Twilight held out her Pokedex, going into further detail of Reflect Type. "It doesn't affect Protect at all. So if any of her Pokemon have Protect or anything like that, the move won't work. So watch out for that. And if you change Castform's forms, it'll no longer have that copied type unless its three forms are identical to the Pokemon it's facing."
"Gotcha. That won't be a problem at all. Plus, who needs moves when Castform lets out attacks from copying another type. Castform. Try copying Altaria. I wanna know what happens if its a Pokemon with two typings?" Rainbow Dash sent out her Altaria.
"Tari!"
"I'm kinda nervous about what this will do." Applejack, Rarity and Starlight hid behind the bench, unsure of how copying a part Dragon-Type like Altaria will go.
"Reflect Type, go."
"Form..." Once it had used Reflect Type on its fellow teammate, Castform's body let out a shockwave in the shape of a dragon's fangs and wings, somewhat similar to that of Dragon-Pulse as Altaria had been blown back from the attack.
"Alta!"
"Ah, Altaria!" Rainbow Dash gasped, flying after her partner as she grabbed her. "You okay?!"
"Altaria..." The Humming Pokemon was fine but that sudden shockwave really stung out of nowhere.
"Not only is it capable of reacting to objects to change its typing, but the way it uses Reflect Type is completely different," Twilight commented.
"How so?" Starlight asked.
"Look at this." Twilight showed her friends further details about Reflect Type. "It's a non-damaging move. It should be impossible for it to even give off any damage, let alone body exertion attacks."
"So...Castform shouldn't be able to do this at all?" Rarity uttered.
"Right. I think it being a special and unique Pokemon is an understatement. I know this may sound crazy, but I think that Castform's cells might be...radioactive."
"Radioactive?!" Her friends pulled back.
"Either that or it just might be another case of magic influencing Pokemon differently compared to their original world. But for now, I'm sticking with radioactive."
"So like...my Castform's a walking radiation monster...Awesome..." Rainbow Dash gawked.
"Cast! Castform!"
"That's some power your Castform's got." Speaking of the pony who Rainbow Dash would be facing tomorrow, Spitfire had witnessed Castform's sudden burst in power.
"Spitfire?!" Rainbow Dash's eyes widened.
"I saw what just happened. It came from that little guy, didn't it?"
"Yeah. Castform here has-" Rainbow Dash paused for a moment, realizing that revealing Castform's Reflect Type move would probably hinder her strategy for tomorrow. "He's uh...one of a kind."
"Is he now? Wouldn't have thought someone like him could be capable of doing that." Spitfire patted Castform's head.
"Cast."
"Looking forward to our match tomorrow. And hey, if you win against me, you won't have to be on Probation anymore."
"Really?!"
"Nah, I'm just kidding. Good luck anyway." Spitfire chuckled, taking her leave as she headed off to rest up for tomorrow."
"We'll show her. Our strategy's gonna knock her wings off. Let's work on that move, okay Castform?"
"Castform! Form!"
And so it was. With the amount of time they had left, the group helped Castform with his newly learned move, testing Reflect Type on other Pokemon.
When Castform copied Grovyle, sharp leaves flew out of his body with power similar to that of Magical Leaf. When he copied Riolu, an Aura shockwave came out of him, giving everypony, except Ash and Riolu a slight shock through their bodies.
This went on for hours until the sun had finally set, prompting the group to rest up until tomorrow.
"Even though it's another Normal-Type move, it's a super useful one that you've learned." Rainbow Dash hugged Castform, feeling proud of him.
"Cast!"
"Guess this means you're confident in Castform now," Ash said.
"Oh, yeah! I was worried about him and how he'd get seriously hurt. But now, I don't have to worry about a thing. I've got a real powerhouse on my team! I'm gonna win this tournament for sure!"
Rainbow Dash looked towards Canterlot Castle, spotting Luna who knew that eventually, Rainbow Dash would have to face her. Whether in this tournament or the near future. One way or another, they'll go up against each other at their current best.
The final day closes in with only 6 trainers remaining now. With Castform learning a new move in the form of Reflect Type and a brand new kind of attack, the upcoming battles could go either way depending on how both trainers perform as the Canterlot Tournament continues.
Chapter 259 End.