//------------------------------// // One Bag to rule them all. // Story: My Little Pony: Red Version // by FaelaArts //------------------------------// Floating, no on something long; was that a Pokémon? Something coming toward, no, away, fire water no it was bird. Release Pikachu, no it was grass. Fire fire; where were the Pokémon, no they wouldn’t fall off. Gone gone; naked unable to fight back, coming closer fire ice lightning, no way to fight back. Rocket grunt, Rattata coming, super fang; no was that a-hyper beam from a gyarados, spash no surf from magikarp. After me, punish me, no Pokémon to save myself, no…No friends left to rely on. Something on his chest, wailord no no, Pikachu; his Pikachu was there for him, always there, never leaving. Thunder, Pokémon fainted, throw a ball, capture, log data, go home to bed and sleep. Pikachu sleeping beside, cool air on my face. Red awoke from his slumber, promptly noticing his Pikachu gently resting on his chest. He blinked a few times before realizing that all he was wearing was a pair of pants. Glancing to the table next to him, he found both his belt and cap waiting patiently for him. On the opposite side of the table was a small chair, where a mint Poké-where a mint pony laid on the seat. Lyra snored softly with a bit of droll dribbling from her lip as she opened and closed her mouth, seemingly eating something. She was sitting upright on her rear, something normal ponies didn’t do. Red carefully nudged his Pikachu awake. The electric Pokémon let out a small yawn before giving him a slightly relieved smile. He quickly jumped onto the back of the couch, allowing Red to sit up in a more comfortable position. Cautiously sitting up, Red looked around for his shirt and jacket. He saw them laid out on the ground near the table across the room, next to Lyra’s pokéball. He frowned slightly, but quickly shook it off as he stood up, stretching slightly before going to retrieve his items. He first grabbed his Pokémon, as they were the most important. Secondly, he grabbed his shirt and jacket and quickly slipped them on. Finally, he walked over to his hat, sliding it over his head, and breathed in deeply. He pulled out a pokéball and glanced at Pikachu, whose ears drooped as he gave Red the puppy-dog stare. Pikachu smiled and hopped back onto the warm couch as Red put the pokéball back on his belt. It was then that Red noticed the feeling of eyes on him. He turned and met the curious gaze of Lyra, who jumped when their eyes locked. She swallowed hard, “So, uh, welcome back, Red. Sorry about, er, having to take your shirt off. I had to get the wet clothes off you and-OH, uh, don’t worry, I didn’t touch your bottom half. And s-sorry for taking your Pokémon away from you. We didn’t w-want you to summon something that could destroy half my house and-” Red cut her off by pulling the mare out of the seat and giving her a large hug. She sucked in a breath as all of her thoughts were cut off, and realized what Red was doing. She could feel his strength. Not his, though, but rather the undying trust of the creatures on his belt. She could feel the crushing responsibility put on him every time he risked their lives in battle. She could feel the knowledge that they would never let him down, and that he was completely confident in all of their abilities. She blinked when she realized that she was a part of all this too, as she was now technically his Pokémon as well. He released Lyra before walking over to the couch. Pikachu saw him coming and jumped onto the back of the couch, giving him room to sit. He lay on the couch with his face turned upward and pulled the blanket around him. His Pikachu jumped down and rested near his legs, curling up into a ball. The two peacefully drifted off into sleep. Blinking, Lyra reeled from the shock of the sudden display of emotion. Did he do it because she was a friend or his Pokémon, or was there some other reason that she hadn’t- The mint mare snapped out of her trance and noticed that somepony had been knocking at the door for the past five minutes, “LYRA! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE!” She flinched in response to the angry voice of the purple alicorn at the door, and scrambled to open the door. “Has he woken up yet, Lyra? I need to ask him to help me with something. It’s quite impor-“ Twilight’s voice cut off mid rant as she saw that Red had all his clothes back on and had changed positions. Lyra strode over, taking up Twilight’s vision as she stepped between them, “Yeah, but he went back to sleep after he put his stuff back on” Twilight growled and tried to trot around Lyra, who hesitated before standing in Twilight’s way, “What’s so important that you have to wake him up? He must still be tired” Twilight growled, her eyes training on the mint mare, “Because, if you haven’t noticed, his backpack is missing” Red jolted awake, up on his feet before either of the mares could blink. He was out the door with Pikachu on his tail before the two had a moment to process the action. It was five seconds before they blinked and were able to dash after him. “Red! What are you doing? Surely there’s no reason to panic-” Lyra cut herself off as Red gazed seriously at her. He gently woke Rapidash, who greeted him cheerfully. Once she took notice of her trainer’s stern gaze, however, she went straight to business. Red turned his eyes to the Pass, pulling it out and browsing through the menus with practice ease before selecting something and hitting the ‘withdraw’ button. As the Pokéball appeared, Red quickly picked it up and tossed it in the air, bringing out a small dog-like Pokémon. It had a cream-colored underside, tail, and puff of hair on top of its head, but was mainly orange in color with arrow markings along its leg and back. It glanced around, then to Red, greeting its trainer with a pleased whimper. Red bent down to pat his Growlithe before pulling off his cap and showing it to his Pokémon. Smelling the cap, Growlithe stuck his nose in the air and began sniffing furiously before howling loudly as it captured the scent. Red and Pikachu hopped onto Rapidash, and before the two mares could ask another question, the trainer and his two Pokémon chased the Growlithe who would lead them to the bag. “Ooh! Girls, look at this one!” Scootaloo squealed as she placed a disc in her mouth. She jerked stiff for a moment as strange images and figures ran across her eyes before she relaxed and looked to her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. Scootaloo opened her mouth wide and released a massive flame, gaining oohs and aahs from her two friends. Applebloom was next, picking the next disc from the pile and placing it in her mouth. “RRROOOOOOARRRR-hihihi” she rumbled before breaking out into giggles. They had found this strange bag lying in the street. It was filled with magical goodies and they couldn’t resist trying a few. They had tried the berries, but discovered that they were gross before Scoot had found a pocket with shiny discs in them. They wouldn’t fit in any of their disc players, so Scoot tried biting one, wondering if it was edible. Once they were bored of the discs, they moved onto the next compartment. Inside, they hit the motherload, finding over 99 small blue candies somehow crammed into the main pocket. They each took one and unwrapped them quickly, opening their mouths to eat them… …before a monster burst into the tree house. “AAAAHHHH” The three girls dropped their candy and fled through the back entrance. Red walked over and began picking up his items, tossing the two opened rare candies to Rapidash who ate them happily. Seeing his supplies a lot worse for wear, Red put his backpack on his back and jumped down the hole that the three fillies had escaped through, finding them cowering down in fear. They opened their mouths to scream, but saw Twilight and Lyra running towards them and decided that running for their lives was the better option. Diving behind the adults, they began babbling about a monster as Red walked out from under the house. Twilight rolled her eyes, “That’s not monster, he’s a human named Red” The three fillies stopped shaking in fright and tilted their heads in confusion. Cautiously peeking out, they noticed that the ‘monster’ was walking casually toward them, not seeming interested in the three fillies at all. Twilight smiled, “I see you found your bag, Red. Did they cause any lasting damage?” The three young girls shrank under the monster’s gaze as he loomed over them. He turned to Twilight and shook his head. Twilight sighed, then turned her cross gaze to the three fillies, “You three are in a lot of trouble. What were you thinking, just going into somepony’s bag and looking through their stuff?” The three fillies glanced to the floor with their faces drooped, “We’re sorry” Twilight glanced to Red with a questioning gaze. Red shook his head once, causing Twilight to smile before turning back to the three fillies, her face cross once more. “I’ll talk to your sisters to make sure they are fine with it, but your punishment will be extremely severe” Twilight warned as the three fillies looked to each other, bracing for impact. Twilight smiled, “You’ll be giving Miss Cheerilee an extra credit project on why Red isn’t a monster” The three groaned at first, but quickly realized that they would be getting out with no massive repercussions. “Sure we’ll be”-Twilight prepared her ears-“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: MONSTER HUNTERS!” They paused and frowned, “Wait, that doesn’t sound right…” Twilight rolled her eyes as the fillies skipped back to their clubhouse. Red petted Growlithe and returned it to its ball, placing it on his belt. With that done, they all headed back toward Lyra’s house. As they walked, Red turned his gaze to meet every pony they passed who glanced at him. Most ran away at the sight of him, but some returned his gaze with a glare of their own, showing him that they were not afraid to protect their town. After some time, Red stopped meeting their gazes and looked forward. It was then that something pink tackled him. It’s super effective! He fell to the road with a neutral look on his face. He soon realized the source of the tackling was a pink ‘earth pony’ whom Red recognized as one of the necklace ponies from the day he had seen the legendary white one. She smiled brightly, “Hi Twilight! Hi Lyra! Is this your human!? Oh! Oh! Can I throw him a biiig welcoming party!?” The pink one hopped off Red’s chest. Red tried to stand up, but was quickly faced with the pink one gazing at him yet again. “Pinkie Pie, I don’t think-“Twilight was easily drowned out as Red’s ears filled with the sound of the pony named Pinkie. “It’ll be short notice, but I can do it! Bring him to my house in an hour, please!” Pinkie chirped as she once more got off Red. He tried to stand up and was once again held down by the party pony, “Actually, I have a much much much MUCH better idea! I bet you don’t even know what a party is, so I’ll set the party up around you! That way, you can see all the things that make a party extra FUN” Pinkie bounced off his chest once more, conjuring a cannon and blowing colored confetti over Red. Red tried to stand up again only to be held down against his will once more. The party pony pulled out two invitations from one of her nonexistent pockets, “Twilight, Lyra, you’re both invited to the WELCOME HUMAN THINGIE TO EQUESTRIA party. We’ll see you in an hour!” Suddenly, Red’s hand was grasped by a pink hoof, and he was being dragged across the ground. Lyra tried to hold back the laughter as Red merely blinked in indifference. Twilight held her head in her foreleg, “I have a feeling this isn’t going to end well” She blinked, then noticed that Red’s Pokémon had been left behind. “I don’t think Red’s Pokémon can defeat Pinkie, so they must’ve decided not to interfere,” Lyra managed before she fell to the ground with laughter. Twilight rolled her eyes, then gazed after Red. Pinkie Pie used confusion against ally Red It’s not very effective. Red used “…” It’s not very effective Lyra used LOL Lyra has fainted The three fillies crowded around the single candy that Red missed while cleaning up, “So, who should have it, Girls?” Glancing between one other, it was decided almost telepathically. “Scoot” Sweetie Belle chirped. “Scoot” Applebloom grinned. “Apple- Wait, what?” Scoot spoke before the candy was shoved in her mouth by her friends. Her eyes widened as she felt the effect, “Woooooooaaah” Scootaloo has leveled up. Scootaloo learned Fly.