Pokemon the Movie: Rival and Darkness

by Banshee531


Chapter 1

Horizon City, a great metropolis built within a large crater. North of it was a small mountain that overlooked the city, in its side was a cave with an ancient temple inside. Currently, the city was illuminated by the man-made lights of streetlamps and buildings, all letting out a soft glow that drove away the darkness of the night.

But in this darkness was a figure flying through the empty streets. They were dressed in a dark blue cloak, blending into the night as they moved through the city, only to reach a bunch of stairs carved into the side of the crater. It ran up them, the stairs seemingly going up forever since the crater itself was large enough to fit a skyscraper and still couldn't be seen. But as they reached the top, the figure found itself standing in front of the temple.

The temple was only really visible from the front, for like the ancient temples that could be found in the far off Crown Tundra, only the entrance was visible. The rest had been built into the mountain, while the entrance was made out of the dug out rocks. It had four pillars holding up the roof, two on either side of a large set of stone doors.

The figure walked up and pushed the doors open, barely able to move them before sneaking through a tiny gap made by the push. And as soon as they were in, the building was suddenly illuminated by proximity lights. The figure kept themselves hooded up as they made their way through, soon reaching the back.

There it saw a statue of a Pokémon, which appeared to be a fusion of a minotaur and an equine that was almost ten foot tall. The top half of its body was that of the humanoid bull, while the bottom half was of a horse's chest and front legs. The rest appeared to be hidden within the wall, the front of its human body sticking out of the wall as its side appeared to be fused with the rock. But the statue also looked very weak, its body looking old and decrepit with long thin arms crossed in front of its chest. It had a wispy beard around its face and tiny little nubs sticking out the top of its head along with a ring on its nose.

The figure walked up to the statue, only to suddenly hear some voices, "I'm telling you, I heard something." The figure turned to the door, now seeing shadows seep in, "See? The lights are on!" They quickly jumped behind one of the temple's pillars just as the door was pushed open, a pair of security guards now appearing.

"Anyone in here?" One of them asked.

"Oh, yeah. Like someone who snuck in here is gonna just answer that."

"Well, I don't see anyone," the other guard replied, "The wind probably just pushed the door open and the lights switched on because of it." He then took out a remote, pressing a button that turned the lights off, bathing the temple in darkness again.

"Maybe we should call the boss and have him bring his Stoutland?"

"You really wanna call the boss on one of his rare nights off? The last time we did that and there was nothing, we had to wash Stoutland's fur of a month! You wanna spend another month trying to wrestle that thing into a bathtub again?!"

"No..."

With that, the pair walked out and pulled the doors shut. The figure waited for a moment, then walked out from behind the pillar. As they did this, they took something out of their cloak, a device that looked like a metal water-gun without a container. It then pulled out a glass one full of a green liquid before screwing it on the gun.

Once that was done, the figure pointed the gun at the statue before pulling the trigger. But instead of the liquid being fired, the gun shot a blast of green lightning that flew out and struck the statue. This caused it to glow green as the liquid in the container slowly began to deplete. And after a few minutes, the liquid was completely drained, and the stature began to glow green...only for the light to fade as it was absorbed into the stone.

"Not enough," grumbled a feminine voice. "I need more power." They moved up and placed their hand on its leg. "At this rate, I'll be discovered before I have a chance to finally awaken you. I need more power. But where am I supposed to get it?"

Silence filled the temple, the statue remaining silent like it always had. But as the figure stood there, they turned to the closed doors, "Wait...the tournament. That's it!" The being then ran to the exit, opening the doors before running to the edge of the crater again. There it focused on a large stadium in the distance. "Yes...with all those battles, I'll be able to gather as much power as I want."

With that, the figure began to laugh before running down the stairs. Soon, Equestria would bare witness to a sight that it hadn't seen in over a thousand years. The return of its most powerful Pokémon as the person whispered, "And it will be mine."


Pokémon, the Movie: Rival and Darkness!


Several days later...

Within the woodlands of an Equestrian Forest, Pokémon were wandering around freely. In the trees, Chickling were nesting with Pipple hanging from the branches while Instick were blending in with the foliage. On the forest floor, Oakid were running around while Pyroom were standing in a cluster under some trees. And in a nearby pool of water, Water-types like Gumigator, Wooper and others were calmly swimming.

There were many other Pokémon, too numerous to count as they all enjoyed life to the fullest. However, as they did this, a new presence began to move through the undergrowth, making them run away so fast that the place looked empty in just a few seconds.

"Ri," Springer the Riolu cheered as he leapt out of some bushes, landing on a nearby rock. Flash Sentry came next, along with his friends, Twilight Sparkle, Spike and Time Turner. The four humans glanced around as they continued to walk through the forest.

"Remind me again why we didn't just transport ourselves directly to Canterlot?" Spike asked.

"Shining Armor said travelling there through this route would be good training," Flash replied, now thinking about the three weeks since they had left the Crystal Empire after defeating Sombra and his evil team. In that time, they had met many strong trainers, Flash fighting them all, claiming victory every time. They weren't easy, but that was what made them worth it to Flash.

And now they were continuing their journey to Canterlot, aiming to finally enter the Equestria League. But along the way, Shining had instructed them to make a pitstop at a certain city: Horizon.

"It won't be long now," Twilight commented as she followed her journal's map system. "Once we're through these trees, it'll be a straight shot to Horizon City." And as she said that, they found the treeline, soon walking out to a far more open area. There was still the occasional tree, but not many as Twilight pointed to a mountain in the distance. "There it is. At the base of that mountain is Horizon City."

Everyone smiled at the sight, Doc speaking up, "If we hurry, we should reach the town right before the sun sets." The others nodded as they began to run for the mountain. But as they did this, they found themselves coming to a stop as they saw a large group of people standing together in the woodland clearing.

"Huh? What's going on?" Spike asked, the others shrugging. And as they got closer, someone in the group turned to them and went wide-eyed.

"HEY! LOOK!" He pointed at them as the group turned to them, "IT'S HIM! FLASH SENTRY!"

"Excuse me?" Flash asked, only for the group to charge at him. "WAIT A MINUTE!" But it was too late as the group suddenly crowded around them, pushing against one another.

"Flash!" One of the girls screamed, "You helped save Equestria! You're amazing!"

"I saw you on TV!" Another teen cried, "My older brother went to the Crystal Empire after he heard you!"

"I went too!" Another yelled, "I was the one with the Thoray! You saw me, right?"

Flash tried to respond, only to find himself speechless as the people kept pushing them back. "What the heck is happening?" Spike asked as he pushed someone back from crushing him.

"Well, Flash did lead the final battle against Sombra," Doc chimed in, "And he was the one to finally beat him. I guess it would be stupid to think that kind of situation wouldn't leave him with a bit of fame."

"But how'd they know Flash was here?" Twilight asked, one of the group hearing this.

"We heard a rumor from someone that Flash Sentry had beaten a friend of theirs a few days ago and that he was heading here. We came to see if it was true."

"Well..." Flash started to backpedal at this, "It's true. Now what?" He got his answer when the trainers all took out Pokeballs, showing him what they wanted, making Flash smile, "Oh yeah." He took out his own Pokeball.

Cue epic Pokémon music.

The group broke up and Flash pointed at one of the trainers, the pair then throwing the balls upward. Flash's choice was his Stagrowth, Prongs, while his opponent unleashed a Mushroast. The two Pokémon stared each other down before charging, Mushroast firing an Ember attack as Prongs easily jumped over it before thrusting his front legs down into Mushroast's head. The Fire-type yelped at this, only to get hit by Prongs' Energy Ball, an explosion consuming the Pokémon.

As Mushroast was sent flying back, Flash's friends smiled before they felt a tap on their shoulders and turned to see three trainers smiling at them before holding up Pokeballs. The three glanced at each other before Twilight and Doc took out their Pokeballs and Peewee hopped off Spike's shoulder.

Soon enough, four battles were taking place, Prongs dodging Mushroast's fire attacks while Twilight and Owlicious were battling it out against a Cauldrula and Doc and Higear were facing off against a Clobberoo. Spike was watching as Peewee and a Skullimor flew around one another, firing Incinerates and Shadow Balls.

Mushroast threw a Fire Punch at Prongs, but the Stagrowth used Bounce to leap over the Pokémon before bucking his back hooves into the mushroom, knocking it into a tree. The blow made the Pokémon slump over, spirals now in its eyes. This made Flash cheer, only for a blast of light to make him turn and see a Vespiquen flying next to another trainer. Prongs stepped forward, but Flash held up an arm before taking out a Pokeball. In a flash, Viper the Vipeacon appeared, letting out a hiss before charging at the bee.

Meanwhile, Higear used Gear Grind on Clubberoo and Owlicious used Sky Attack on Cauldrula, both Pokémon getting blasted back and slamming into each other. This caused the pair to start arguing, distracting them as Higear grabbed Clubberoo's tail while Owlicious took Cauldrula in his Psychic attack.

Both were pulled up while Peewee used Bite on Skullimor's tail and swung it down, crashing them altogether into the forest floor. All three Pokémon were knocked out, the trio celebrating before seeing more Pokémon being released to battle. More than three had sent out their Pokémon, causing Twilight and Doc to unleash the rest of their team. Soon enough, Shine and Owlicious were fighting a Movine and Ghouwail while Peewee fought against a Abearab. Higear, Tockwork, Flitanium and Aggron were also facing a Grattle, Thoray, Boaraurora and Pyruby.

As this happened, Flash found himself battling more and more, Springer against a Mawile while Viper continued to battle the Vespiquen and Prongs was now fighting a Stalorn. Meanwhile, Skyler was battling a Ninjask in the sky, and Astro was slashing away at a Drifblim with Dragon Claw. And on the ground, Riptide was facing off against a Heliolisk.

The battlefield was a chaotic mismatch of Pokémon attacks, explosions everywhere as Flash and his friends smiled at this sight. At this moment, Springer jumped up to avoid Mawile's Crunch attack before forming a Bone Rush and slamming the energy staff onto its head, making it cry out. While this happened, Skyler was getting struck again and again by a super fast Ninjask, only to snag it with its claw before throwing it upward before slamming into the Nnjask with an Aerial Ace attack.

At the same time, Riptide did several back-flips to avoid the Heliolisk's Thunderbolt, then jumping off a tree like a spring board. to shoot forward. He formed as Aqua Blade at this, slashing at the lizard's neck and knocking it off its feet. As the blow hit the lizard, Prongs fired an Energy Ball at Stalorn's face, the opposing Pokémon pushing through the attack and firing a Stone Edge. However, Prongs easily side-stepped the attack and practically teleported next to Stalorn before thrusting his horns into it, draining away its energy before throwing it away.

While this happened, Viper slithered along the ground, avoiding Vespiquen's multiple Power Gems before unleashing a Flamethrower. The bee dodged it, only for Viper to leap at the bee, swinging its body around the Bug-type and biting its tail and using Pyro Coil. As this happened, Astro found himself buffeted by an Ominous Wind, but fought through before charging at Drifblim. Once close enough, he used Crunch on one of its arms and swung it down at the ground.

The others all blasted their opponents down, knocking them to the ground and allowing Flash's friends to turn and see his Pokémon line up. Prongs, Viper and Astro fired their long rang attacks while Springer, Skyler and Riptide charged. A Drain Punch, Steel Wing and Rock Smash slammed into the opponents at the same time as the Energy Ball, Flamethrower and Dragon Rage hit, knocking all their opponents back, leaving them all unconscious.

Music ends.

"No way..." one of the trainers gasped as he returned his Drifblim. "They're really good." Flash smirked at this while the trainers returned all their Pokémon before walking away.

"Well, that was fun," he turned to his Pokémon. "Nice work guys." The Pokémon all cheered before he returned them, promising them a treat later.

As he did this, Spike spoke up, "I can't believe you're famous now."

Doc chuckled at this, "Give it thirty years and you'll probably become a subject in schools." Flash smiled at this, the idea of a kid doing a history report on him now appearing in his head, only to go away as Doc added, "Anyways, we should probably get going before it gets to dark to see the city."

They nodded back before following the trainers that had challenged them. And as the sun drew closer to the horizon, they found themselves getting closer to the mountain...but no city was appearing. "Shouldn't we be able to see this city by now?" Spike asked, getting a giggle from Twilight.

"I doubt that," she replied, "Horizon City is located in a pretty interesting location."

This made Flash, Springer, Spike and Peewee all raise an eyebrow while Doc pointed ahead of them. "See for yourself." The three glanced back, only to go wide-eyed as they saw the base of the mountain drew closer. There they saw it was actually a hole, now seeing it get bigger and bigger.

And as they reached the edge of the hole, they went wide-eyed as they saw that the hole was a giant crater, so large that an entire city had been built inside of it. Multiple skyscrapers that were over fifteen stories tall were there but still didn't reach above the edge along with a large stadium and several parks.

"Wow," Spike whispered.

"Welcome to Horizon City," Twilight told him, "Pretty cool, huh?"

"I've always wanted to see this place in person," Doc added, "Can't believe we're finally here."

"So...how do we get down there?" Flash asked, only to then notice a bunch of stairs on the opposite side of the crater. "Don't tell me we have to travel all the way around there." He turned to Twilight, who shook her head before pointing over to an area of the crater a little ways off. They followed her finger and saw a building that was built upon the edge of the crater, which had several large glass pipes heading straight down the side of the crater.

"Horizon elevators," She commented before pointing in three other directions, now showing a trio of buildings just like the first one that were placed in an X formation around the city. "We can get down using those."

"Awesome!" Spike cheered before running for the building with Peewee, Springer following after them. The others laughed and walked after him, soon reaching the building and heading inside. The place looked like something out of a futuristic movie, the entire building being made of shining metal, looking so clean that you could eat off it.

There was a line for the elevators, the group getting in line before they started to hear people inside now whispering amongst themselves. Flash saw the people were glancing back at him at times, making him feel both smug and a little nervous about what he was supposed to do next.

And as they walked up to the elevator, a girl ran up to them. "Excuse me!" they turned to her. "Can I get a picture?"

"Err...sure." She smiled at Flash before handing her camera to Doc, then grabbing his arm and hugging it. As Doc took the photo, Flash noticed Twilight crossing her arms with a low glare.

"Thank you!" She yelled once the picture was taken and ran off, leaving Flash and his friends free to enter the elevator.

"This is gonna start being a common thing, isn't it?" Spike asked as the doors shut and the machine lowered itself down the glass shaft.

"Not sure," Doc replied as they turned to stare at the city that was beginning to overshadow them. "This could just be a fifteen minutes of fame thing, or it could be permanent depending on what Flash does next." Flash nodded as the elevator reached the bottom, which flew down into another building before opening up, the six riders walking out to find another group of people waiting for the elevators.

They appeared to recognize him as well, but were lucky enough to not get swamped again or being asked for a battle or photos. But it was after getting past the crowds that the group noticed what this place really was.

Flash and his friends marveled at the sight of the city, now seeing the people and Pokémon working so well together. There were garbage collectors that were picking up litter that they placed in a bag being carried by Drifloon. There were cafes with Bounsweet helping the drinks while some Alcremie were baking some sweets. There were also Flying-types soaring above their heads, carrying mail and others items.

But it wasn't just the humans and Pokémon that were amazing. The city itself was technologically impressive, no cars or trucks on the streets, instead being a bunch of strange hovering platforms of different sizes that were flying through the streets without any issues or accidents. The crossroads had force-fields that stopped the platforms from hitting one another, and there were floating trash cans with Trubbish inside that hovered through the street collecting anyone's garbage.

"Wow..." Twilight whispered, "This place is amazing." They walked past some road works, spotting a Machoke pulling up a broken piece of ground to allow the worker to get under the road. They then saw some Joltik charging a machine for some engineers repairing a telephone pole. Above the engineers was an Emolga, the Pokémon sitting on one of the engineer's head, ready to help stop any electricity that could shock the workers.

And as they saw more and more, they found a Pokémon Center and headed inside. There they found the many trainers they had beaten before in the waiting room. "Flash!" One of the trainers exclaimed, "You're here!"

"Yeah," Flash nodded, "I guess I am."

"I guess it's no surprise you beat us," Another one chimed in, "You did save all of Equestria."

"Well..." Flash blushed, "I didn't do it alone." He gestured to his friends, "I never would have gotten to that point without my friends there to help me. And everyone else who came."

The trainers shared a glance at this, some nodding while others stared at him like he was a Legendary Pokémon. As this happened, one trainer asked, "So what are you doing here in Horizon?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Another trainer interrupted, "Here's here for the battle tournament!"

This made Flash go wide-eyed, "Battle tournament?"

The trainers turned to him, some tilting their heads as they responded, "The Horizon Cup. It's a yearly tournament that happens right before the league. It's not anything special, but it's good training for those hoping to take part in the Equestria League."

Flash's eyes went even wider before turning to his friends, Doc shaking his head, "Nope. Never heard of it."

"Me neither," Twilight added, only to cross her arms and shake her head, "Wait...you don't think Shining sent us here so you can compete in this, do you?"

"Maybe?"

Twilight let out a long sigh, "That's Shining for you. I'm guessing you're planning to enter?" Flash nodded, turning to Springer as the Riolu let out a cheer.

"Well, you might have trouble with that," chimed in a trainer, "Most people enter online or over the phone. You can try and enter at the stadium, but I think you'll find it might already be full."

"What?! Where's the tournament being held?!"

"At the stadium," he replied, "If you wanna get there, just use one of the transport platforms. Type in where you wanna go and it'll take you there." As he said that, Flash was already gone, yelling a thank you as he vanished out of the room.

"Flash!" Twilight yelped as they ran after him. When they left the building, Flash got to one of the platforms, now seeing it was a large metal square with a railing on three of the four sides, and a touchscreen connected to one of the railings.

"Alright..." he and Springer climbed on, "So how do we work this thing?" He moved over to the touchscreen and pressed his finger on it.

"Welcome," the device said out-loud before the screen showed a keyboard, "Please enter where you would like to go today."

"Okay..." Flash whispered as the others walked onto the platform. "S...T...A...D-" He stopped when the option for Horizon Stadiums came up. "Nice." He pressed it and when he did, a pair of metal doors closed the gap in the railing before the platform lifted into the air. "Whoa!" They all yelped as the platform jerked up to the road and grabbed the railing, holding onto as the machine shot through the city along with many other people riding platforms. Some were carrying entire families while others carried single individuals and a few shopping bags. One even had an Aipom riding with its trainer that waved at Springer, the Riolu waving back before they took two different streets and sped off.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Flash told the machine.

Twilight rolled her eyes at this, "You do remember he said you could sign up online." Flash turned to her, "that probably would have been faster then actually going there." Flash let out a moan at this, the group turning back to the ride as they watched the city go by until they saw the stadium in the distance. It looked like a lot of the other stadiums they had seen up until this point, though this one more shiny and metallic.

The platform turned to the building and they soon arrived at the front door, the transport turning into the parking lot and finally coming to a stop. "You have reached your destination." The platform deactivated and slowly fell to the ground, landing as the doors popped open.

Flash then bolted through the stadium doors, running up to the receptionist. "Excuse me! Are there any places left in the tournament?"

The woman behind the desk turned to her computer and typed away while the others reached them before she replied, "I'm sorry. The last spot was filled up by a young man about fifteen minutes ago."

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Flash cried, falling to his knees as tears began to stream down his face. Springer moved over and placed a hand on his shoulder, while his friends all sighed at this.

"Sorry Flash," Twilight commented, "Don't worry. You've still got a guaranteed entry into the Equestria League."

"Yeah...I know." Flash grumbled as he stood up, "Still, this would have been a great warm-up for it." He then turned to the reception lady. "When's the first round gonna be?"

"It starts tomorrow," she replied, "But if you wanna watch some battling, the contestants are having practice battles out on the field that you can watch." Flash nodded and walked up to the field, his friends following till they reached the stands. There they saw a practice match about to begin.

"Alright, let's see whose facing-" Flash's mouth came to a sudden stop, the others turning to him.

"Flash? You okay?" Twilight asked before glancing down at the field, only to freeze up as well along with the rest of the group.

Flash stood there with wide eyes, gasping as he saw who was on the battlefield, "Lightning..."

Lightning Blitz was in a triple battle, his opponent using A Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan and Hitmontop. The Pokémon he was using were ones that appeared to be new additions to his team, though it was clear where they had come from.

"Row!" A Roglacier roared as it dodged a Fire Punch from the Hitmonchan.

"Close Combat!" He ordered before the Ice Fighting-type charged, slamming its arms and legs into the Punching Pokémon in rapid succession. At the same time, Hitmonlee leapt at an Androrg.

"Rolling Kick!" The Kicking Pokémon swung its leg horizontally as the cyborg just stood there.

"Electro Blade!" Androrg raised its arm and blocked the kick before its other hand started spinning with electricity, swinging the arm in next as it sliced the Fighting-type with the blade of lightning.

Hitmonlee cried out as it was knocked back, landing on the ground next to Hitmontop as Lightning's final Pokémon charged. "Thrash!" Thrashark roared as it ran ahead at the Hitmontop.

"Aqua Jet!" Thrashark was consumed by water, flying past Hitmontop and knocking it off its feet. At the same time, Roglacier dodged Hitmonchan's Mega Punch. "Blizzard!" It pulled down its scarf and unleashed a blast of friged air, which struck the Fighting-type, freezing it up as it sent flying back.

"Chan!" It landed next to Hitmonlee and Hitmontop, Thrashark landing in front of them.

"Now, Tsunami Surge!" Water exploded from around the shark, turning into a wave that washed the three Hitmons away. They all screamed in pain before falling unconscious.

Lightning let out a yawn as he returned his Pokémon, spinning around to walk away. But as he did this, he glanced up at the stands, his seeing Flash for a second before continuing to walk out.

"This little trip is certainly gonna be an interesting one," Twilight commented before all but Flash turned to leave the stadium. Flash remained where he was for a moment, clenching his hands into fists before going after this friends. His mind went back to what Twilight had now said, knowing she was right. This trip was gonna be interesting, but how much was yet to be determined.