//------------------------------// // Fresh Blast from the Past // Story: My Little Pokémon: Grander World // by Amarvax //------------------------------// Equestria. Canterlot. The Pokemon School. Day. The Pokemon School's third day had arrived. And at this moment, two lessons were going on in the same class. Physical Education. Naturally, in a world where plenty pursued the path of a Pokemon Trainer, the normal Trainer will need to walk a lot and camp a lot if they wished to get out there. And alongside that was the Art of Battle. Present here were Nightmare Moon and Potion Nova. Nightmare Moon could finally cover Pokemon Battling in the way she wanted and of course, Potion Nova had plenty of potions based around Pokemon. A majority of these potions she currently had in the room focused on traits of Pokemon that anyone could retrieve. They had their Pokemon out as the students were free to let them roam around as opposed to the previous rule. On top of that, a new rule to the Pokemon School had been added and was seen on the wall in the form of a list. The rule stated "To resolve all conflicts with a Pokemon Battle or by seeing the teachers and principal. Especially if it involves taking over the world." Easy enough to follow and plenty if not all can get by that. "I don't need to lecture you on what Pokemon Types there are. You all figured that out by yourself." Nightmare Moon said. "Wherever you live is a clear enough answer. What you truly need to learn is the thrill of it. Now that you have all of them out, I want some of you to go up against each other." "In here? Are you sure?" Silverstream questioned, wondering if it was safe to battle indoors. "Of course! After what happened yesterday, a new rule has been passed. Now battles can happen inside the school instead of on the field outside. But be warned. Don't go too overboard." Nightmare Moon warned while also revealing the added rule. "Don't worry about that. I made a potion just for that. Take a look at this." Potion Nova came well-prepared, showing them a potion that had a sparkly blue appearance. Almost like water. "This potion is meant to weaken Pokemon moves." "A potion that weakens Pokemon moves? Oooh...I shouldn't find that amazing, actually." Sweetie Belle said. "I mean, it can be awesome in its own way. Sure, your moves won't be as powerful as they used to be but..." Potion Nova tried thinking of a positive that this would bring to the students. "Well, it's for the sake of learning. And your Pokemon will still be battling with everything they have which will help them grow. Even if it's not everything they have." "And luckily for some of you, I will be on your level." Nightmare Moon sat on a table with a smirk on her face. "I have asked Luna to lend me some of her Pokemon. They will be taking some of the potions as well, giving them a massive handicap." "Sweet!" Many of the students found that fair. As long as they don't get trounced, it was all fine with them. They'd gladly take a handicap for their own Pokemon. "Except for some of you." That is until Nightmare Moon revealed that some students would be exempt from this. "This is only for rookie Pokemon Trainers. And some of you have already come to this school in the past or have other experiences in battle. "Huh?! W-We don't get to join in!?" This involved Scootaloo and practically of her friends. A majority of the students wouldn't get that opportunity at all, sadly. It was a shame that they managed to improve so quickly. They wished that they could regress. "Ooh. I should've made a potion for skill regression too." Potion Nova even thought about something like that the moment many students were turned down." "But!" Nightmare Moon revealed a caveat, startling Potion Nova. "To those who can't drink it, you will have another role. You will have to tutor your fellow classmates who are new to Pokemon Battling. "Pssh. I don't need that." Smolder denied the chance to take the handicap at all. "I did a lot back at the Dragon Lands so I'm pretty sure I'm good enough." "You liar! You just watched from the sides most of the time!" Another dragon pointed out. It also didn't help that she was seen as a rookie thanks to Ember's words. Smolder grimaced after her fellow Dragon debunked it. "We will be at this for a while, I can assure you. Probably right when school is about to end." Nightmare Moon was given the Power Restraint Potion. According to her, this would go on until school was over. A simple lesson even though it would have some differences. If there was one thing in the world that everyone needed to learn it was Pokemon Battling since it would save plenty of them. Pokemon were now forever a part of their lives and they had to adapt as soon as possible. Very soon, this one classroom would break out into a frenzy. Some students would walk by this classroom, hearing a sudden outburst of moves going off inside. It startled them as the many elements could be heard in there, flying out at a frantic at a fierce pace. Since these trainers were children, they would naturally go wild with their commands. Thankfully, the potion worked like a charm and all of their moves have been greatly restrained to the point where not even a door would come flying off or even a wall would take that much damage. Hearing this was Twilight Sparkle, who was present at the principal's office. Sitting there, she had the widest smile on her face. She was in such a high position. Even beyond her princess status considering what she was. The seat she sat on had been adjusted for her size since it was previously meant for a human. She completely changed the room, having a small figure of a Pokemon. In this case, it was of a Joltik. Right next to her was Espeon who had a new place to sleep. "This is nice. Isn't it, Eve?" "Eeeee..." Espeon yawned, stretching her legs before comfortably lying down on the carpet floor. This carpet was so comfortable it might as well be a bed. "Yeah. Life like this sure is sweet." Twilight made a relieved sigh. "Granted, now I'll have to be around here more often since I'm the principal. Add that up to the Pokemon Lab I was given and that's a lot on my plate. But it'll be fine. Hasn't stopped before. Right now...I get to enjoy this." She sat there for a while, listening to the ambience around her. A ticking clock. The sounds of the students having a blast. That last part pleased her greatly. She fulfilled one of her dreams in life thanks to how the world turned out. And she couldn't have asked for a better world than this that was never supposed to exist in the first place. But now it does. "Alright. Now I'm bored." Unfortunately, something like this can only be great for so long. Now, Twilight wished to do something else rather than sit down. No paperwork to sign or anything to manage here at the Pokemon School. At least not yet. To kill this boredom, she would whip out her Xtransceiver, deciding to talk to her friends first. She selected Pinkie Pie's Trainer ID first, wondering if she was available at the moment. "Twilight!" Pinkie Pie yelled, startling Twilight for a moment. "What, Pinkie?! Is something wrong?!" Twilight gasped, thinking that some serious was going on based on how loud Pinkie Pie yelled. She didn't exactly say 'Hello' upon answering. "...No." But there was nothing to fear, making Twilight frown instantly. "But if you wanna know something, it sounds like Starswirl's nearly done with that gateway thing." "Is he? He's been around the Pallet Town Gateway so I'm guessing he's found something." Twilight's interest was rekindled. "How is it going?" "Well...all he says is that it'll take maybe a few months or more. So, we're still a long way from getting those gateways back." "Hah...Alright." Twilight sighed. "That's fine. A few months isn't that bad, we've waited for longer. I just really want those gateways back. Why'd they have to vanish?" "I was thinking we could just find Jirachi again and fix it. I mean, they've all been freed so that means there's Jirachis in the world again! We could go to Hoopa and have him find us a Jirachi." "Yeah. We've tried that, Pinkie. But there's an annoying catch with all of that. Even after we merged everything, Jirachi just up and vanished. No reports of any Jirachis have been made yet. Not a single one in the world has been sighted. No rumours or anything like that. I'm wondering if they ever returned at all. Hoopa's even stumped by this." "Hoopa can't find Jirachi?" "It's more like Jirachi won't come to Hoopa. Hoopa doesn't pull out random Pokemon. The Pokemon pass through the rings, using it as their own gateway. Hoopa just holds it out for them. My guess is that the Jirachi don't want to show themselves and after what happened, I don't blame them. They're out there in the world but they won't show up at all." "Aw, that's a shame. Do they have to hide? I never got to see Jirachi at all! I mean...I have. Mew can turn into one but still! A real Jirachi would be so great!" "It would...But I can guarantee you that it'll happen someday. Eventually, we'll see every Pokemon out there. Believe me." Twilight laid back on her seat while continuing to talk to Twilight. "Well, we can if Mew just turns into them but...you know what I mean. We'll do it the same way Ash does. He's been all over the world and seen so many Pokemon. Past, present and maybe even future." "About Ash...Do you think he could solve this for us?" "I can count on Ash on many things. He's good friends with Hoopa, but that won't help us find Jirachi. And I can guarantee that he knows where a Jirachi can be found but judging by how things are going, the Jirachis probably returned to the stars. They do sleep in space after all." "Oh, okay." Pinkie Pie nodded in understanding. "Watcha doing right now? How's being a principal working out for you?" "It's...fine. For the most part. Feels good to run a school. But it also means that I might not have many chances to adventure with you all." "Ah, you'll always get that chance." Pinkie Pie squeed, uplifting Twilight's spirit. "One thing's for sure. Ash will come to you if there's something he wants to check out with all of us. I bet right now, that's exactly what he's thinking." Kanto. Pallet Town. Ketchum Household. Day. "Whooo! Nice place you got here, Ash!" Instead, someone had come over to Ash's home. Two individuals actually. They were none other than Hilbert and Hilda from Unova. Unova in another universe, of course. At last, their adventure led them here. They were previously seen at the Pokemon School and now they've shown up here, courtesy of Ash. "Hm? Oh, what's this?" It didn't take long for Delia to notice them. She laid eyes on Hilbert and Hilda, especially Hilbert. Looking at him, Delia saw something rather familiar about him. She saw some of her son in Hilbert, mainly due to the face and a bit of the hair. "Hey, mom. This is Hilbert and Hilda." Ash introduced. "Thought I'd bring them over here since they're going all over the place." "It's not like we can't get back anyway..." Hilda sighed. "Wonderful. And I See you brought a look-a-like. Is this the Hilbert character your father spoke of?" Hilbert's name was familiar to Delia, mainly due to what happened at the Galaxy Tower many months ago. "That's me! The number one trainer in the-" Hilbert grinned before having his face grabbed by Delia, catching him off guard. "W-Wooooorld!" "It does my heart good to know there's more of my son out there! Even if I'm probably not your mom in your world, apparently, you're another Ash." Delia swooned at the thought of her son being present in other worlds. So far, she only knew about Hilbert, Red, Gold and Ethan from what Ash has managed to share. "Y-Your hands are as strong as my mom's though..." Hilbert winced. "She does the exact same thing to my face and it hurts just as much." "I wish I was someone's counterpart." Hilda was a bit jealous. She wished that she had her own counterpart somewhere in the wider universe and beyond but so far, nothing has come up for her. "I'm sure you've got someone. You've always got parallel versions, right?" Ash tried reassuring her. "Yeah, but that's to be expected. I want it the same way it is for you, Hilbert and the others. You're all parallel to each other but you look and act so differently." Hilda pouted. "Come in, come in. It's wonderful to have guests over all the time. Ash always brings so many guests in and they all are so different." Delia invited them in. "Especially guests from Equestria. What brings you here?" "Well, I figured I'd stop by to see what the life of my counterpart is like." Hilbert shrugged. "I mean, I already know that. It's pretty big. He's famous over at Equestria, after all. But what about here? Good old Kanto. Even though I grew up in Unova." "Interesting. So all of my darling Ash's grew up in different regions. It's strange to think that you are all technically the same person but you are so different in appearance. But you remind me so much of him with that face. And the way you dress. All blue with a hat?" "Not all of us dress like this. Well, we wear hats but sometimes you'll see us in Red. We came here by using a temporary gateway. Since all of them are gone except this one and another, we had to find a new way to travel worlds. The thing is..." Hilbert chuckled, scratching his face afterwards. "We're kinda stuck." "We haven't been able to return to our world just yet." Hilda sighed. "But the same goes for the others who showed up here. We've been away from home for a while now and we don't have a way to communicate with our original world. So...we've just been stuck here this whole time. It at least gives us the chance to explore a brand new world." "That sounds a bit sad," Delia uttered, frowning at that reality. "Not being able to return home is rather disheartening, even if you have found a new world to explore. But surely, you can get home. I've learned by now that there are ways to travel across worlds. Isn't that right, Ash?" "Oh yeah. And once Starswirl figures out how to make a gateway, it's only up from here." Ash pointed his finger, instilling hope into Hilbert and Hilda the same way his mother did. "But you know...while I'm at it." Hilbert made himself comfortable, lazily sitting on the couch with his arms behind his head and his legs crossed. "Might as well become number one in this world too." "Oooh. Are you the very best in your universe already? My Ash is planning to be the very best as well." "Uh, he's not." Hilda put her hand over Hilbert's mouth before he could boast any further. "He just calls himself that. All the time. Never fails to make us remember it every single day. But he is a powerful trainer...The Champion of Unova, after all. For a moment after you just up and vanished." "I could've kept my champion title! A lot happened!" Hilbert removed Hilda's hand. "But ya know...Iris deserves it more than I did for how much she helped us out. Simple as that." "Oh, so your universe's Iris is the Champion of Unova too. Sweet!" said Ash. "Man, I wanna visit your worlds someday and see what's up with them." "Pi-Pika!" "Yeah. But if I could take that spot back, you know for a fact I would. ANy time. But I'll let her keep it. Besides, number one in the world is way better than just one region." Hilbert winked. "Right?" "Trust me. There's a good reason why he calls himself number one." Despite all of this boasting, Hilda revealed that Hilbert did have a reason for it. And if it was coming from Hilda of all people, then not only was it true, then it must be good enough to see things from Hilbert's point of view. "Well, while we're here. Take a gander at our family line~" Hilda hummed as Mr Mime had already brought her the book that she needed. "The Ketchum Family line is a long one. We don't leave an impact on the world but it's always fun to see what we've done in the past. No matter how small." "Oooh? A look into the past?" Hilda leaned in, curious about Ash's past. She might as well take a look now that she was here. "This book rocks. Shows me where I got my name from." Ash added as he would lean in with Hilda, along with Hilbert. "Plus, I get to see my ancestors too." "Is there someone who looks more like me? If we're so similar, that is." Hilbert asked, wanting to see as soon as possible. "We have some very notable members in the Ketchum family line. They all come from a village but some got out there in the world. One of them was a lady by the name of Lena Ketchum." "Lena's my really-really-really great grandma. She was an adventurer. I think she was the first Ketchum to explore the world and that made everyone wanna try it out." "She would always sing about what she did. It inspired the people of that village to sing certain songs. One of them especially boosted the confidence of you, Ash. "Mhm. It's about chasing your dreams, keeping them close and eventually they'll come true. That's what they used to sing and I carry that with me all the time. "Yes, she was...Eh?!" Just then, something shocking met Delia's eyes, startling the others. Very soon, Hilda would have an equal reaction but Hilbert. He was rather lost on this. "My, my! What a surprise!" "T-That can't be! Can it?" Hilda stammered. "P-Pikachu?!" "What? What's up?" Hilbert questioned. "Is something wrong?" "How far back is the Ketchum family line, Mrs Ketchum?" "At least 2000 years ago. It's a family tree that has been around for a long time. And because of that...this image shouldn't make any sense." Delia shook her head. It was still lost to Ash and Hilbert until Delia uttered these words. "She's wearing modern clothing." "Oh yeah...She is! I've seen someone in Unova wear those clothes!" Hilbert said, finally seeing the oddity. "What's up with that?" "That wasn't there before actually..." Ash finally caught on. Lena Ketchum should not have an image of herself at all. Not for a moment. And if she did have one, it would be a drawing. But this was the real deal. Real life. Obviously, Lena would have worn old-fashioned and ancient clothes, much like the era she was around at. But what was being shown here was rather recent. This looked like something that could be bought in the modern day. Not only that, but the image was clear. The rest of the Ketchum Family Tree that managed to receive images based on what era they were in all had sepia and black and white colours, showing how old they were. It wasn't until images started gaining colour that they became clearer and the ones that predate the images only had their names written. But Lena Ketchum had a completely clear colour. Her colours were visible for all to see. She was supposed to be one of the family members that only had a name and that was it. And she even had an image of herself which was impossible considering the era she came from. Cameras and anything that could take a picture weren't around, especially for someone that came from a village. Lena was the odd one out here without a doubt. "This has a ton of implications..." Hilda shuddered. "If she's wearing that...and her image is in colour...then that can only mean one thing." "You don't think...Grandma's in the present?!" "No way! That can't be!" Hilbert instantly rejected it. "No offence, but she should be long gone by now. There's no way she can be in the present. It's gotta be something else." "Hm. It's only her as well." Delia flipped the book, trying to find anyone else with images from the far, far past. But no one else came up. It was only Lena around that area, way before it and slightly after it. "This image has never been in the book before. Well, at least we know what your very great grandma looks like, Ash." "Yep. She really does look like me!" Ash grinned, pleased to know what his grandma looks like. The similarities between her and Ash were uncanny. She was closer to him than Hilbert was. "Shouldn't we be cautious about this?!" Hilda stood up as her pupils dilated. Her arms trembled and her lips quivered. "If this image just showed up in your book all of a sudden then that means only one thing...Time has been affected somehow!" "Ugh. Time Travel again? Might have to call Lucas for that. I'm not dealing with that again." "Hm. I'm still here though." Ash looked at himself. If time was involved, then he would've expected something to happen to him. But everything seemed normal. As normal as they can be, anyway. "You said it yourself, Ash. There might be a chance that your grandma is out there in the world right now as we speak. And the era that this image is placed in makes it seem like it's rather recent. How long has it been since you last looked at that book, Mrs Ketchum?" "Well, I took a look at it 2 years ago and her name was still there." "So it was somewhere after that time." Hilda bit her thumb, shifting her eyes rapidly. "I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing..." Sounds good to me!" Hilbert stood up, laughing it off. "That just means you've got more of your family to see! How often is it that you get the chance to meet your ancestors? Not many unless you have a Celebi or Dialga!" "Celebi and Dialga....They might have something to do with it. And that blue gem on her necklace." Hilda observed the image closely, noticing the blue gem. Dialga was associated with blue so that might be a hint. "And hey! It doesn't sound good! We don't know what this could do!" "I know one thing's for sure," Ash said, standing up as he made up his mind. "My grandma's out there...and I just gotta meet her!" "Pikachu!" A revelation that no one saw coming had hit them in the face. Ash's ancestor, Lena Ketchum, had a clear image and a modern appearance. Something was amiss. Very amiss. They weren't sure what it was just yet but this looked like proof that at this very moment, there was another Ketchum in the world. And it was someone from the past. As the journey continues. Chapter 224 End.