//------------------------------// // Baccer Woes // Story: My Little Pokémon: Grander World // by Amarvax //------------------------------// Equestria. Near the Outskirts Manehattan. The Dimensional Castle. The Pokemon Festival. Nightfall. Here at the Dimensional Castle which was sitting outside of Manehattan, both Twilights have encountered each other. It's not the first time either of them have met another lookalike of themselves. For Twilight Sparkle, she has seen multiple counterparts of herself under the Sun. She's even had to battle an evil version of herself. But this time, it was different. There was a bizarre connection that birthed into existence. Both Twilights felt it too, shaking their heads as it felt like they've been electrocuted. But the Twilight from another universe took it better. She looked rather unphased as if this wasn't the first time this has happened. "Wow....You really do look like my mom. There's just one difference but it's still so weird seeing my exact mirror." Twilight Sparkle said. "But...what was that spark?" "You felt it too? Then you're definitely my other counterpart." Twilight replied. "Your name?" "Twilight Sparkle. And you're Twilight..." The Princess of Friendship paused for a moment. "Just Twilight." "That's it? Nothing else after that?" She was rather surprised to hear that one of her counterparts lacked an extra part to her name. "I'm Sparkle and the other one is Moonlight but you don't have anything? Are you the first Twilight or something?" "Well...I don't know about that. I just don't have anything else after that." She giggled before thinking for a moment. "I bet that can be a bit confusing. How about I substitute one?" "Like...?" The young alicorn leaned in, waiting for her response. Judging by what she knows, she expected something related to the night sky or anything during the dusk. Every Twilight she's met has that connection. Especially Twilight Moonlight. "You can add Wish to my last name." She already found something to add to her first name. "It works since that's how I teleport. I don't casually use magic just like other unicorns from different worlds. I have to speak a specific word to teleport." "Oh, really? Well, you do wish upon a star, I guess." Twilight saw the connection. "So, do you say 'I wish' to teleport or something like that?" "Close. I say this. I wish, I wish, I wish." And by speaking those words, Twilight Wish appeared right behind her counterpart. Twilight and her Espeon quickly swivelled to see Twilight Wish in another spot. "See? It's less convenient but still fun to say." "Well, I can thank Discord for bringing me here of all places first" Twilight Sparkle chuckled. This was Discord's approach since he escorted her seconds after bringing up the other Twilight. "And I'm glad to know you're not intimidating. But if you're here, you're probably determined to stop Prisma too, right?" "Right. B-But don't get the wrong idea!" Twilight Wish frantically shook her head. "I already had a chat with your ruler. I believe her name was Princess Celestia. I only wish to keep Prisma's soul from emerging. I don't want to harm your friend." "Really?" "Really! I swear!" She put her hooves together. "And if you don't believe me, you can ask Princess Celestia herself, I promise!" "Alright, alright. I got it." If she was willing to bring in Princess Celestia, then she wasn't bluffing. Celestia was far too important to lightly use in a conversation such as this. Sheena's been wanting to stop Prisma too and she offered a less destructive decision. Ash is keeping Prisma from appearing, but I'm not sure when he'll even show up." "Phew..." Twilight Wish sighed. "Alright...Glad that's already covered. Now, I just need to get back to a few things. For starters, you're not the only Twilight that showed up here at this time of the night." "I'm not? Did another Twilight pass through here already?" "Not really. The Dimensional Castle tells me that another Twilight has entered this universe." Twilight Wish answered. "It can sense whenever someone shows up in a universe and that makes it very nifty." "I'm sorry, what?" The young alicorn raised her head as she wasn't aware that she was even in a Dimensional Castle. She wasn't even sure what that was. When looking up, she heard a sound that not even Celestia, Luna and Chrysalis got the chance to hear. A melodic hum came from the castle, reverberating through Twilight Sparkle's body. "Oh my..." "It travels to universes but stays in between two of them. I explained everything to Princess Celestia's group, but I know for a fact you'd love to hear about it. Right?" Her counterpart winked. "Unless you have places to be." "Well...I wanna be with my friends but, it's getting late and I'm tired too so..." She scrunched her face, looking back at Twilight Wish. "You're free to stay here. I'm so used to running from my other counterpart, it would be nice to just casually be around another one too. I'd love to know more about my counterparts since I've got all this time on my hoof. It could be like a sleepover!" "This doesn't exactly look like the place to have a sleepover though.." Twilight observed the castle and its current condition It was still a mess. Luna was right. Twilight wouldn't normally leave a place like this in such disarray but now that the Twilight she knows was present in this castle, she was most definitely not going to let this mess remain. "How about we clean it up first before anything else?" "Mmm...Sure." It took another version of her to even go along with cleaning this mess up. The two Twilights got to work, giving this place a refresh. It looks like it hasn't received any care for over a month or so. And since the castle seemed to be somewhat alive, there was a chance it was displeased. They could kill plenty of time with this. "By the way...what was that feeling when we met? I never felt that with any of my other counterparts." Twilight Sparkle asked, wondering why that spark went off. "Oh, that? Well, that's actually because we're closer than you think." Twilight Wish replied while cleaning the walls. "You see, all those other counterparts you met, they were just alternate versions of yourself. Another story with another world. They live their own lives that don't relate back to your universe. But the two of us are different. We may come from different worlds, but we share the same story." "We do? What do you mean by that?" "It's a lot like with your friend and Prisma. You could say that we have the same soul. And it all ties back to this." From a cabinet, Twilight Wish would reveal a certain object. It was a piece of regalia, specifically a crown. Half of a crown to be even more specific. "A crown? What's up with this?" Twilight approached the cabinet with the crown. "This crown's been with me for a long time and apparently, it has something to do with our connection. The one who lent me this castle said so. I never thought too much about it until she brought it up. And apparently, Twilight Moonlight has one as well." Twilight's interests were back in full swing. This counterpart of hers was far more important than the others she's met before. According to her, there was a connection there. Similar to Ash and Prisma, which was a little nervous but not something that was said in a negative light. "Tell me more." Unova. Aspertia City. Day A new day had come. The second day of the fourth Pokemon Festival. And here at Aspertia City, where the mountains are so high, you can see all of Unova, the Junior Pokemon Baccer event was taking place. For those who aren't professionals but still love the sport or wish to engage with it, this was the place to be as a mini-stadium had been planted. Arriving here was Scootaloo, who took an interest in this sport after Rainbow Dash showcased it to her. Present here were a majority of her friends who came to watch her. Already, many other children were gathering to take part in this small Pokemon Baccer event. "Aspertia City...Guess I'm not gonna find Nate here." Lucas commented, already recognizing Aspertia City. Mainly from the world he comes from. "Am I here?" "I saw you on TV once. So you totally are" said Ash. "I'm kinda surprised you and that other Lucas aren't all that close. But it's you and me instead." "Heh. Weird how the universe works like that, huh?" Lucas chuckled. "Hey there! I'm here to sign up!" She would jump up, clinging onto the registration table. "Can I?" "Of course you can. Pick a team and you'll be escorted straight to it. But you will have to be careful about which team you choose. I believe a majority of them seem to be clogged right now." The receptionist said. "Let me see." "Really? How many?" Scootaloo would gander at the team names that were present on the walls of this registration office. It involved the names that Rarity once saw while looking at young Pokemon Baccer clubs. The Pichu Eleven, The Wild Mawiles, the Skitty Junior Baccer Club, The Spewpa Dust and the Litleo Prominence were all there, plus many more. And when looking at their spots, Scootaloo saw how a majority of them were full. All of them had full members which went up to 15 in total. Her aw dropped as there didn't seem to be a spot for her with many kids were participating. "Oh, dear. They joined relatively quickly." The receptionist said. "It'll be difficult for you to join one." "Aww..." Scootaloo lowered her head in disappointment. "But, don't worry. There's an available spot. The Pichu Eleven are available." The receptionist brought a brighter side to this. "They already have eleven members on their team, so it would be great if you could make it twelve." "Works for me! Sign me up!" "Before you do that...You'll need to register your Pokemon." She stopped Scootaloo from instantly dashing off. Her Pokemon haven't been registered yet. "How many Pokemon do you have on you?" "Uh, let's see...Rapidash, Quilava, Pachirisu, Seadra and Gible so that's...five!" "Five is good enough Six is the maximum as you can imagine. Go on to the Pikachu Eleven team room. You're free to take any of your friends or family with you." "I know I definitely wanna do that!" Scootaloo galloped along as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle would promptly follow her. Ash and the others would simply head to the stands to watch this small Pokemon Baccer event when it eventually happens. At this very moment, there was already a match going on and Ash certainly wanted to view it. "If we hurry now, we can probably see the rest of this Baccer match!" Ash said, running off with Lucas, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. They were already on their way, not wasting any time. Meanwhile, it was just Rarity, her Human Counterpart and Spike who would simply trail behind. Pichu Eleven Baccer Club Room. Scootaloo found herself in this Baccer club after being led here by the employees. She already got a gander at some of the club rooms here, seeing how fresh they appeared. These rooms were absolutely lively to the core, whether it was the energy coming from them or how everyone was already starting to form well-adjusted teams. She was expecting the Pichu Eleven club to be the same. And upon entering, she would encounter the kids who were already in this team from the very beginning. As for the room, it was not lively at all. Rather silent and lacking that same energy the other rooms had just from the outside alone. Here, the kids who were in this team wore a specific set of clothes. The colour blue was a rather prominent colour for a Pokemon that was yellow. Blue jackets, blue shirts, blue dresses and blue shorts with yellow accents on them to boot. On their shirts, they had a stylized symbol of Pichu on them, signifying their mascot. Some of them even wore headbands, which had the initials P 11 on them. "Uhh..." Looking at these kids, they looked to be rather uninterested. Very uninterested unlike Scootaloo. A boy was seen reading a comic book while next to her was a girl snacking on some popcorn. Another was too focused on playing a video game, prioritizing it over everything else happening out there. Two of them looked absolutely tired, resting their heads on the sofas. It didn't seem like they were here for Pokemon Baccer at all. They were just doing their own thing, compared to the other Baccer Team Rooms which had plenty going on. Scootaloo paused for a moment as the reason for this club room lacking many members was starting to make sense. "Hey. Are you new here?" But amidst all of this boredom and silence, one individual seemed to notice Scootaloo, approaching her. It was a rather enthusiastic girl who wore her team uniform proudly. "Uh yeah. I'm taking part in this event today." Scootaloo answered. "And this was the only team room that wasn't full." "Sorry...Not everyone here's feeling all that excited." The young girl apologized. "I'm the co-captain of this team. Aubree's my name." "Look at that. Someone joined. "One of the kids took notice of Scootaloo at last. "I thought no one would." "She didn't go for the other teams? What a waste..." Another kid said. "I mean, not that I would've or anything." "Come on, everyone. Say hi to our new member. Well, for this event at least." Aubree requested. "She's our first teammate that we've gotten since we showed up here." "Hi, I'm Scootaloo! Straight from Equestria!" She introduced herself. "I'm excited to play with you!" But no one exactly gave a complimentary greeting back. There was a still and weak air around the room. "You're wasting your time." A girl with a lazy face said. "So are we. I wish we could do something else during the Pokemon Festival, honestly." "Yeah. Those other clubs are more excited than us. They'll gladly stick around. Me? I wanna visit Equestria and try their doughnuts. I hear one pony makes the best doughnuts out there. "As if!" Suddenly, bursting into this room was another boy who also wore the same team outfit. He was definitely part of this club and was by far the loudest out of anyone here. "What's wrong with you guys? We're here to play not laze around!" He bellowed. "Hey, Jay! This here's our main captain!" Aubree excitedly introduced the Team Captain to Scootaloo. Jay. "Founder of the Pichu Eleven!" "And a pretty upset captain too." Jay crossed his arms, eyeing down his teammates. "We're a Pokemon Baccer Club! What's the point of showing up here if we don't play it?! Didn't you guys join this club just because you wanted to play?!" "Yeah, but, I don't think we should be here, Jay." "We lucked out. We're only here because of that one game we managed to win." "That game mattered, okay?! We won and we got a spot here among the rest of the clubs." Jay grumbled. "That's all that matters to us and now we can really prove ourselves!" "Only because they felt bad for us after hearing the news. We were never good enough. No way we're proving ourselves." "That's not true though...!" The Team Captain closed his eyes while growling. "Uh, Jay...Maybe you should meet our newest member for this event." Aubree tried calming Jay down. "This is Scootaloo and..." "So what if they went easy on us? We still played our best game back then and I've been waiting to get out there for the longest. We're not gonna let this moment slip away from us now that we've got tons of eyes watching us. We're gonna play our best again and this time, they won't go easy on us, so it'll be satisfying when we when!" Jay grinned. "Yeah. If we win. But that's not happening. Might as well call it quits now, Jay. I mean, why are we even doing this?" One of the teammates stood up. "It's a miracle you even got us to show up here but I think that's the last miracle we're getting, dude." "We're doing it for Pichu..." Jay growled before turning his back to them. "I thought you guys were doing it for Pichu, but I guess it's just me. Fine then! Standard Baccer lets you use three Pokemon sometimes and I've got three of my own so whatever! If you wanna back out, be my guest. I can win this by myself!" Angered, Jay stormed out of the club, leaving his teammates to go somewhere else. Another dash of silence hit the room but this time it was awkward silence. Scootaloo saw the way the other teammates expressed their faces. While they were honest about not being here, the way they reacted to Jay's words told a different story. There was something there. But they went back to what they were doing seconds later. "S-Sorry you had to see that." Aubree stuttered, hoping Scootaloo didn't feel uncomfortable after that. "Jay's going through something right now. Wish I could help with his problem but, it's tough." "It's fine, it's fine." But Scootaloo had no qualms with it. "That's why I'm a Crusader. Stuff like this is up my alley!" "It is?" Aubree blinked. "Yep." The pegasus grinned. "So, what's the problem?" "Well, it's tough to say it but...it has something to do with our mascot, Pichu. Jay's Mascot Pichu." Aubree frowned, knowing the story behind this and what was driving Jay and the others to react like this. "Pichu's the reason why we're here today and Jay's holding that close to him." Break Room. Jay found himself in a room where the participants can come and taste the snacks and drinks that were offered up after a long and well-played game of Pokemon Baccer. But right now, Jay just wanted some time alone. He sat alone in this room, near a mirror with his head down. No one else was here since practically everyone else was ready to play. Except for Jay's team after all. "This blows...I hate winning like that...I wanted it to be the real deal, but I had to take that win. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here." Jay spoke to himself as a part of him wished to win without anything taking it easy on his team. The taste of victory that involves doing your best while the opposing team also does their best was wonderful. "It was way better back home when we were just starting out...I wish you were here right now to say something, Pichu." He looked at the mirror, immediately seeing the visage of his partner Pichu. Clearly, something had happened to Pichu for such a circumstance to come up. Just then, out of Jay's body, a familiar purple aura surrounded his body. Jay didn't notice it. He didn't even feel it. But that was only natural considering what this energy was. It once caused trouble across Equestria and some parts of the Pokemon World before going into hiding because of recent events. But now, once more, it has made its return, targeting someone rather vulnerable but strong-willed at the same time. It was the energy of the Desire. As the journey continues. Chapter 287 End.