//------------------------------// // The Third Pokemon Festival // Story: My Little Pokémon // by Amarvax //------------------------------// Kanto. Pallet Town. Ketchum Household. Day. The Third Pokemon Festival was here. 3 weeks of complete fun across not just both worlds, but now multiple worlds, making this the largest one so far. The first week had arrived, kickstarting the festival. "Ooooh. It's always during summer, isn't it?" Delia stepped out of her home, wearing a sunhat and sundress under this intense heat. "Hope we don't get burnt under the sun." "I kinda thrive in the sun." Ash jumped out of his home, raising his arms. "Makes me feel lucky!" "Pikachu!" "Well, well. Where should we start? So many options. Everywhere in the Pokemon World is available and in a festive mood. Aside from Christmas, that is." Delia pondered as Mr Mime left the room with some bags, knowing that Delia would be busy shopping. "That's a lot of bags. You're going on a huge shopping spree for these 3 weeks, aren't you, mom?" "Princess Celestia did a massive favour and sent me loads of gold that I could convert into Pokedollars. Such is the benefit of you being Equestria's hero." Delia giggled. "I'd be crazy not to use all that gold she sent me." "Yeah. That was one of her ways of saying thanks." Ash nodded in response. "Well, she wasted all of it!" Appearing as a shadow next to Ash, visibly aggravated was King Sombra. "I was going to use that gold personally to spice up my room!" "My home, my rules." Delia stuck her tongue out. "Looks like you'll have to work for it just like my son and Pikachu do. Heroes and everything." "Tch. Now I have to spend three weeks around some ridiculous festival." Sombra growled. "Ah, it's not all doom and gloom. You're gonna find something neat at this festival, Sombra. No doubt about it." Ash laughed. "Anyway. I'm gonna meet up with both Twilights at Unova. Where are you headed, mom?" "I'll start with your option! Unova! Lead the way, son! We've got a lot of work to do for these 3 weeks!" Delia pointed forward. "All these Pokedollars are craving to be used." "Gotcha. It'll be Castelia City." Ash would lead the way with Delia and Mr Mime following right afterwards. Sombra decided to emerge in his physical form, immediately using his magic to put on his disguise as the pony known as Jet Black. But of course, Kanto had something to offer since it was a part of the Pokemon Festival. Pallet Town was met with some visitors from Equestria as Ash and Delia indulged in some festival activities from the get-go. One of them was a Prize Punch game. A massive board that was filled with these steel circles could be seen as Ash stopped to take part in it. The goal of this was to try and smash through these hard circles and receive a price. Ash knew who would work well for this. "Alright, Lucario! Force Palm!" "Luca!" Lucario smashed his paw through one of the circles to the left, shattering it. Out of the circle, Lucario was granted some unique glasses that had a bio-luminescent glow around the edges and on the frames that immediately fell into his paws. "Rrr?" "Nice! But, what's up with those glasses?" Ash wondered as Lucario put them on. The moment they were put on, this allowed Lucario to see everything in inverse. He immediately took them off, blinking for a bit before passing the gift to Ash, not wanting it. "Gee thanks." "Ooh! Let me have a swing at it! Mimey, Focus Punch!" Delia aimed to get in on the action. "Mime-Mime!" Mr Mime would do the same. He channelled some strength into his fist before smashing through one of the steel circles. A successful impact as a random prize would now be ejected towards him. For Mr Mime, he received what seemed to be a massive cloak with polka dots on it. But when the cloak came his way, landing on him, Mr Mime's body became invisible along with the cloak and the only thing that remained were polka dots. Mr Mime was still there, but it was just floating polka dots that could be seen. "Ooh, neat stuff." Ash nodded. "You can use that cloak for stealth." "No, you can't. The polka dots still remain. What use will this be?" Sombra protested while Mr Mime moved around as a walking pair of polka dots. The group continued as they would take some time to reach Unova since they were getting distracted by all the activities placed around the Pokemon Festival. Unova. Castelia City. Day. And meanwhile, over at Unova, Twilight and Rainbow Dash had already arrived there. And immediately, they had already taken part in the activities, gathering up some prizes. But for today, they had a set goal for this Pokemon Festival. At least, for this first week. "This festival's also going to be used to catch this Galaxy Master character," Twilight said to Rainbow Dash. "He'll go straight for anything that has Rift Energy and I'm one of them since I became a vessel for Rift Magic." "Still can't believe that Ash's creation came to life like that. But boy...that's so awesome." Rainbow Dash grinned and much like Ash, she was all for Galaxy Master considering that he was a real-life comic book character that came to life. "Lucky Ash! I gotta meet him!" "You seriously want to meet him?" Twilight questioned. "Totally. I mean, he's gonna give us problems, but still. Might as well enjoy this. It wouldn't be the first time we've met with fiction." "You're right. Hope those problems aren't too big though..." "Anyway. Here's what I wanna do at this festival. For this one, I've got a chance to battle an Elite 4 Member. From any region. Get a good look at this." Rainbow Dash dug into her bag, holding out a flier. "Says here for this Pokemon Festival, you get to battle an Elite 4 Member across each region. And that's what I wanna do." "Elite 4 Members? That's a big jump, don't you think?" "Nah. Totally fine." Rainbow Dash scoffed. "I'm gonna start here at Unova and battle an Elite 4 Member. They should also appear in different locations to boot." "What if you get trampled?" "I'm not gonna get trampled." She protested again, believing in herself to stand a chance against any of them. "Okay then. But you'll have to be ready if you're gonna face an Elite 4 Member. You don't want a repeat of what happened with Lightning Dust." "It won't be a repeat." Rainbow Dash shook her head before shifting her eyes to the side and speaking in a lower tone. "I hope. Anyway. I won't feel too bad about it when I lose to one of them. Battling an Elite 4 Member is the perfect way to see how far I've gotten. In fact...hey, let's battle Twilight!" "You and me? Battle?" "Yeah, yeah. We haven't done it yet and I want to warm up before I meet one of the Elite 4 Members. I'll start here at Unova and then next I'll go to...hmmm..." "Hey! Hello!" Before Rainbow Dash could think of her next destination, a familiar voice had rung out to her. "Not now, Twilight. I'm thinking." Rainbow Dash replied, hearing Twilight's voice. But it wasn't the Twilight Sparkle next to her. "Oh, that would be her." Twilight nudged her head, revealing that the one who called out for them was Sci-Twi. She came running over as she was already set to be here thanks to Ash. Alpha Pikachu ran past her, stopping in front of Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "Hm? Oh, it's you!" Rainbow Dash cried out. "Uh...What did Ash call you again? Science something?" "It's Sci-Twi. And it's nice meeting you two again. Especially myself for the second time." Sci-Twi faced Twilight as this was their second time meeting each other. But now, it would be less awkward since they were already aware of each other from their respective worlds. "Hi..." She gently waved her arm. "Hi." Twilight greeted back, waving her hoof. "I see you've been busy with your Alpha Pokemon work...You've got an unusually large Pikachu. Ash's Pikachu's ancestor, right?" "Pikachu!" Alpha Pikachu nodded. "He is. Great to speak to you without things being awkward. But it must be weird for you Rainbow Dash. To see two of us just talking to each other like this." "Nah. We have hundreds of Twilights come over one time, so it's not a big deal." Rainbow Dash shrugged it off. This sight would be bizarre to others, but not to her. "But hey. At least you get to see me as a pony? Don't I look cool?" She put on a bright grin. "You looked adorable as it." Sci-Twi thought otherwise, stunning Rainbow Dash. Sci-Twi laughed right afterwards along with Pikachu and Spike. "I was afraid you'd say that..." Rainbow Dash knew that to be the truth. "So, this Pokemon Festival...what's there to do?" Sci-Twi asked. "Well, usually this festival is always erratic and things happen around us. Just like now." Twilight nudged her head to the sky as an object was flying this way. They each looked up as both Twilight and Rainbow Dash spread out their wings to try and catch this spherical object. "I got it first!" Rainbow Dash managed to reach the object first, catching it with her mouth as Twilight missed. "Yes!" "Nice catch! Come here for your prize!" This was part of a Pokemon Festival game as Rainbow Dash had been called over, being the lucky one to catch this object. "Aww...." Twilight sighed as Rainbow Dash got giddy. "We'll battle later. I'm gonna get something first." The pegasus flew away, heading for the attraction. "Oh well. So, why don't I help you out?" Twilight said to her Human Counterpart. "I have some experience here in this world. Especially with Unova. We can start with something good to eat?" "I just had breakfast already but..." Sci-Twi gazed at the food stands and all of their unique selections. "Having something else to eat so soon wouldn't hurt too much." "Great. Anything to prolong my battle with Rainbow Dash. Gotta prepare for that and I'd like you to take me on an Alpha Pokemon search if that's possible." Twilight asked as she, her counterpart and their Pokemon were ready to get some nosh. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was getting her hooves on all these prizes that she could choose from. Castelia City was always usually lively, but now thanks to the Pokemon Festival, everywhere is as lively as Castelia City with huge crowds being spotted everywhere. Even on routes. Routes are never that populated, to begin with, but because of the Pokemon Festival catering to even Wild Pokemon, you couldn't go anywhere without seeing someone. This festival would involve everyone. Even those who were unknown. Especially the vampires. Vampires from Magehold were present. After learning about the 3rd Annual Pokemon Festival, by the order of Rosa Maledicta, some of them had been sent to the Pokemon Festival to gather more information about Yveltal. With an event this big, they had to take the chance. To protect themselves from the harsh sunlight, they all wore something over their backs and heads. Among one of these ponies were the ones who tried getting the book from Sci-Twi a few months ago and had once again shown up at Unova. Opal Vivacity, Sweet Fang and Spectrum Shade. Opal was in a similar outfit as Delia, having the sunhat and everything. They were all over at one of the food stands, getting some cold drinks and some food to eat. "See what I see?" Opal spoke, slightly raising her sunhat as she had spotted Sci-Twi. "Totally. It's her." Sweet Fang replied, staying in the shades to protect themselves. "We still have that demon in the box. We can have a second go at trying to dig into her memories. Doesn't hurt to try again." "We didn't bring the box with us. Fractured Note has it this time," said Spectrum Shade. "Hmmm...She looks to have a Pikachu with her now. That's double the light energy." Opal narrowed her eyes. "We'll just keep our eye on her for a bit, just in case. We still need to focus on others if we're going to find something about Yveltal." "Yeah but...there's a second one." Spectrum Shade spotted the second Twilight who came from their world. "What about her?" "Same for her. Let's not make any rash decisions. Besides, I'm enjoying this drink. This isn't so bad. It's better than pumpkin juice." Opal drank the soda. "Mmm!" "That's true." Sweet Fang nodded in agreement. "The food's just as good." "Might have to do some extra sweet-talking for more of these." Opal giggled. "Well, I don't wanna just sit around and wait." Spectrum Shade craved some excitement. She looked around, seeing what could grab her attention was her head slumped on the table. And thankfully, the Pokemon Festival offered something for everyone. Rainbow Dash was still holding onto the flier that allowed her to challenge the Elite 4 Members. She looked at the flier, selecting one of the Unovan Elite 4 Members, already deciding who she would like to battle first. Spectrum Shade stood up, adjusting her baseball cap before narrowing her eyes. Spying on Twilight and her friends paid off as Spectrum Shade found something that could satisfy her. The Elite 4 Challenge sounded enticing as the multi-coloured-maned vampire sat up. "Oooh. I know what I wanna do." Equestria. Canterlot. Day. Much like Castelia, Canterlot was flooded with visitors for the Pokemon Festival. Celestia had already gone the distance by allowing other universes to enjoy this festival, opening up multiple gateways. But aside from different universes, Celestia also allowed the nation of Pegalysium to join in on the fun. "Celestia!" Luminary greeted Celestia as the Royal Family from Pegalysium had shown up. Celestia and Luminary approached each other, embracing in a hug. "Oh, thank you for the invite!" "It's no problem, my friends! A shame I couldn't get it all up to Pegalysium." Celestia greeted back as she and Luminary patted each other on the back. "It's fine, it's fine. Paramount here's been planning to use his Rift Magic to sort that out." Luminary replied. "Mmm. Travels to Pegalysium and Canterlot will be made easier from now on. Starmap's maps will be updated to show pathways." Paramount said. "Hey, dad. COuld I uh...run off and do my own thing?" Shooting Star asked. "Go ahead. But stay safe." Paramount allowed it as Shooting Star was gone at the speed of a shooting star, rushing off to explore the Pokemon Festival freely. But secretly, with just the flap of his wings, Pegalysium Guards started stealthily following him. "Ahem. Celestia. About those Poke Balls..." "Ah, it's fine. All of them should be up there in no time. Hope it's not too difficult to use them. And just to be safe, I made sure that they were all Quick Balls. One throw and there's a good chance the Pokemon will be caught in a second. But it's always best to get to know them first." "I tried that. The Unown are difficult Pokemon to understand. I can't tell what they're feeling." Luminary shook her head as the Unown always had the same expressions. Which was only one expression. "But, the others will have more to offer." "Enjoy yourself. As for me, I'll be busy for maybe...the first two days. This festival is friendly to everyone, no matter the status." Celestia turned around. "Oh, and if you happen to see a costumed character, it'd be great if you could tell us that." "Is something wrong?" Luminary asked. "Something is very wrong." Appearing out of nowhere without warning was Luna. She was as stealthy as her ace Pokemon Darkrai. "This festival is also being used to catch someone. Someone who was made by the Rift. A superhero from a child's old fanmade book...It's a bit of an odd story..." "Sounds fun! I'd love to hear it!" Luminary was interested while Celestia departed from the castle, heading off to do her own thing. Celestia ended up heading to a certain room. A room that she had already been in last week. The room where the mirror to the Human World was. She wanted to experience that feeling again. Being a human was fun for her from start to finish and experiencing that form while taking part in the Pokemon Festival was a combination that she couldn't resist. The Princess of the Sun immediately jumped through the mirror with Passion and Arcanine following right afterwards. It was time for a second run as a Human. Premium Polish, who was secretly within this room, had shimmied away from a treasure chest she was hiding behind, just witnessing Celestia enter the human world. "She must really love being a human to go there with such energy." Premium Polish commented. "The only gateway there leads to Unova...so I'll meet her there and surprise her." Feeling playful, Premium Polish would try and make her way to Unova as quickly as she could. All she needed to do was head to Manehattan and surprise her. Meanwhile, right above Canterlot, two massive forces had flown by, casting large shadows over the castle and even Canterlot itself. That would be the Twin Dragons Reshiram and Zekrom. The two of them would also indulge in the Pokemon Festival. They've just finished protecting another world and stopping the Empress' forces yet again and joining the festival was a great option to relax. They didn't have a set destination. All they wanted to do was fly across the world but without needing to race. But Reshiram wouldn't mind slowing down as he has experienced the things the ponies of Canterlot do. Especially since he was paralyzed and stuck at Canterlot Gardens for a while. "It's tradition over at Pegalysium to perform a dance to illustrate their family history on the winter solstice. It's supposed to be a symbol of strength and generosity." Down below, the ponies of Pegalysium were sharing some of their nation's knowledge with the ponies of Equestria, along with some humans who had shown up. "Aw, isn't that sweet?" A Canterlot pony replied. "And in the city of Airton, it is tradition for grandmothers to be the first to sing a song to newborn babies. It's supposed to bring good fortune and health. I made sure to do it first by knocking everyone out. So guess who's still healthy even with this old body/" An old pony said with a proud smile, making the other ponies look at each other nervously. "I've gotten used to this world. Even more so than my own world. I wouldn't mind staying here." Reshiram spoke to Zekrom whilst flying through the skies. The people were stunned to see two Legendary Pokemon casually flying through the skies. "That's nice. But soon, we will have to head back to our original worlds one day. When this is all said and done, we'll return. Absolute Balance needs to be brought back to each universe." "You are right. The same goes for Princess Flurry Heart and her Giratina. One day, she will have to return Giratina to the Distortion Realm. But...is that really a fair choice for her? She's clearly grown a bond to Giratina. And I've grown fond of this world and Princess Celestia." "We'll have to see when that time comes." Faye Mountains. Changeling Hive. The festival had been brought to the Faye Mountains as there was a trail of decorations that led to the Changeling Hive and the mountains. The changelings were already enjoying themselves as to be expected. They would show some visitors just how they did things back here. There were other visitors coming this way, and three of them were rather special. Special in the sense that not only did they come from parallel worlds from the Pokemon World, but all three of them would feel familiar to one individual despite being separate individuals. They made their way through the decorations, following the trail to the Faye Mountains. They coulda already hear a unique form of music coming from beyond. The changelings had their own way of producing music. Aside from the usual singing, they transformed their unique bug noises into music and it worked efficiently as the people, ponies and Pokemon found them to be entertaining. "We're here it looks like." Those three individuals had moved through some bushes as Chrysalis, who was sitting on a tall tower to oversee things spotted them. "Hm? Ash." When she took a closer look, her eyes were betraying her. It looked like she was seeing Ash. Three times. But instead, that was not the case. It was Red, Ethan and Brendan who had arrived. For a few seconds, she thought Ash had shown up as their appearances were similar to him. She already knew who the three of them were, but she couldn't get that comparison out of her head as she rubbed her eyes. Coming from a parallel world, Red, Ethan and Brendan had arrived at the Pokemon Festival after catching wind of it. "Ah, it's you three." Chrysalis flew away from her tower, descending to greet the three Champions. "Welcome, welcome. To our hive." "Oh, it's...Uh..." Ethan tried saying Chrysalis' name but couldn't quite get it right. "Crystal?" "My name is Chrysalis. Queen Chrysalis. The Second Changeling Queen." She introduced herself in a formal way with honorifics. "Red. Ethan. Brendan. It is Ethan, right? Or is it Gold? There was some confusion when Celestia told me about you." "My full name's Ethan Gold. You can call me Ethan or Gold. Either one works." Ethan AKA Gold finally gave out an easier way to address him. "..." Red lowered his hat to greet her, staying silent as always. "Thought we'd take the time to show up to this 3-week festival," Brendan said. "And by that logic, the next one will be 4 weeks long and so on. It might as well become a month-long festival once it reaches its peak. "3 weeks of this..." Ethan started daydreaming. "This gives us all the chances to see everything. Not just in this world, but in that other Pokemon World. It's not quite the same as our world, right?" "Will there be more of you?" Chrysalis asked. "Surely, it isn't just you three that have shown up to this world despite the open gateways." "Nah. Lucas and Hilbert should be here soon. So should Hilda and the others." Brendan replied. "It's 3 weeks so there's no need to hurry. But, there's something I want to try and do. Or rather, we'd like to try and do." "We'll spend some time here for a bit and head to the Pokemon World. Since this world is parallel to ours, we wanna try and battle the same people we've battled already." "What do you mean by that?" Thorax heard their conversation, holding his Zorua. "I wanna face Lance again!" Ethan declared. "For me, it's Steven. And uh...Lance for Red too." Brendan replied. "In our world we became champions. Well, Red stepped down as one. And that had us thinking..." "If they're still champions in this world, that must mean they're stronger than their counterparts in our world." Ethan leaned in, putting his hand on Brendan's shoulder. "We have to see if that's true." "Hm. Fair enough. Well, I won't waste all of your time. Enjoy yourself here at our hive. Would you like some Hive Juice?" Chrysalis used her magic t bring over a cup of juice that looked unappealing to the eyes. Ethan and Brendan stared with grimacing faces as it was certainly not appealing to them. The name didn't help, but Chrysalis' sweet smile made them fear denying her offer. All except for Red, who grabbed one and immediately took a drink. "Ah! Red!" The both of them bellowed as Red thoroughly enjoyed the drink. "...?" Red looked over at them with a confused face, not seeing why they would see it as unappealing. But Chrysalis already knew they found it unattractive, laughing right afterwards. The three of them would enjoy their time here before heading straight for the Pokemon World, focusing on the champions who they were already aware of in their respective worlds. The third Pokemon Festival was already in full swing. The first week was still young with more to come. Visitors from parallel worlds, other universes, different nations and all kinds of species would appear. Such was the tradition of the Pokemon Festival as the journey continues. Chapter 839 End.