//------------------------------//
// Trying Out The Game 
// Story: MLP-FiM Plays PKMN-MMORPG 
// by destinedjagold 
//------------------------------//

	“Welcome to the world of Pokémon.”

An adventurous theme music played as the screen flashed from black to white, and then slowly changed into a wonderful scenery where tree-filled hills rolled as far as the eyes could see. Tall mountains stood where the hills appeared to have ended, and pure white clouds rolled peacefully in the blue sky.

Chirping noises suddenly echoed, louder and louder, and soon, the scene changed, following many different flying creatures Twilight has never seen before. The scene changed to a grassy field where different earth-bound creatures grazed and played. The scene changed once again, this time under the sea, where many sea creatures swam in different directions.

The screen then slowly faded into black, and when the screen went totally black, a more peaceful music played as the screen slowly brightened, and finally flashed a stand-still full-screen image of a peaceful town. Then, in the middle, a window appeared, asking for a username and a password. Below the two fields were three buttons: Log-in, Register, and Exit.

Twilight clicked on the username field, but then stared at it for a couple of seconds.

“I haven't registered an account yet...” she finally said to nopony in particular.

“Registration usually takes around twenty to thirty hours, Twilight...” Spike said, staring at the LoL loading screen on his monitor. He slightly turned his head to see Twilight in his field of vision. “But since you wanted to just try out the game, why not use my account for the time being?”

“Is it okay?” Twilight asked, looking at him in concern. “Aren't account sharing bannable or something?” she mentally cringed, since that word never existed in any of her dictionaries. Ever since the rise of technology, new words started coming up, and Twilight was overwhelmed by the huge amounts of new words she needed to catch up upon.

Spike simply smiled and shook his head lightly. “Not really. There are exceptions to account sharing, like, if you know the owner of the account in real life and gave you permission, or if you're siblings, family, and...you get the idea.” He then fixed her a glare. “Just make sure not to lose any of my rare items and Pokémon! Especially the ones that Rarity traded with me!”

Twilight rolled her eyes with a small smile. “Fine fine. Just get over here and type your username and password already.”

Spike was about to get off from his chair when suddenly, his LoL match started. He quickly returned his attention to the starting game. “Eh, can't. Match just started. You type it.”

“Uh...”

“It's not like you're going to hack my account once you know my username and password. Or are you?”

“Of course not! Why in Equestria would I even want to do that?”

“And that's why I trust you!” Spike smiled as he made his avatar run towards the middle tower. “Username's ‘spikesparkle’. All lowercase letters and no spaces.”

Twilight used her magic to type it. She smiled at the thought of Spike actually using her last name as his own. It made her feel warm inside. After she typed her little brother's username, she then clicked on the password field.

“Password's ‘spikexrarity4ever’. All lowercase letters, no spaces, ‘for’ is the number four, and stop giggling!” he glared at his game as he began killing the enemy's minions while trying not to get attacked by the enemy champion.

Twilight giggled as she typed Spike's password. She then clicked the ‘Log-in’ button, and a loading ‘wiggling pokéball’ animation appeared with the word ‘connecting’ at the bottom.

“Seriously Twilight, stop giggling already!”

“S-sorry Spike...” Twilight said as she wiped a tear from her eye. She was about to say something when Spike groaned, but her attention went to her screen when a confirmation sound chirped and the screen faded into another still-image loading screen. “Huh, this is really a wonderful artwork,” she said in awe as she stared at the image of small grassy hills and tall icy mountains in the distance.

After a few more seconds, a peaceful yet lively music started playing as the screen began loading the environment in only two seconds. Twilight first noticed Spike's character...wearing a simple white t-shirt, a pair of black pants, a red and white cap, a brown backpack, white socks and black shoes. She then noticed that ‘Spike’ was inside a small luxurious-looking room with expensive-looking furniture. Above the character was a white text that read ‘SpikeTheDragon’ and above that text was ‘[TheElemendsOfHarmony]’. But what really bothered Twilight was that the character didn't even look like Spike at all! Except for the green hair though.

“Spike? What's this?”

“I'm guessing you're asking about my character's appearance, right?”

“Yeah, it's just so...funny looking...” she replied as she zoomed closer to check the character's details. “Shouldn't the skin color be green, like you? This is your character, after all.”

“The game doesn't offer green skin color though... But anyway, if you're wondering, those ‘trainers’ are called ‘humans’.”

“Humans?” she mumbled to herself. Where did she heard that word, anyway? She knew she heard about that, but where did she heard about it, or from whom? It irritated her. “Spike. Is there a list in this game of who created what?”

“Escape button, credits list,” Spike said automatically as he finally killed that annoying champion who gets healed every time it delivers an insane attack. “Hahah! Yeah! Eat shi—shrimps, you uh...never mind...”

Twilight arched an eyebrow at him.

Spike chuckled nervously. He was just glad that he caught his tongue. Since Twilight was here, he needed to keep the cursing at bay as best as possible, else, he'll be grounded again like last time.

Twilight shook her head and hit her keyboard's escape key. A log-out window appeared, with four buttons: Return to Game, Log-out, Credits, and Quit Game. She clicked the ‘credits’ button and a new larger window appeared.

“Let's see here... Hm...”

The window was divided into two columns. The first one, the smaller one on the left, was the  table of contents. The right column, the larger one, was where the details were located. She was reading the texts on the table of contents when suddenly, a message-like tone chirped when a small blinking window appeared right in front of the text she was reading.

The small blinking window held the name ‘TheFabulousRarity’ on the left, and on the right were two buttons: an arrow-down button and an ‘x’ button.

“What's this?” she asked.

“Somepony probably ‘whispered’ to me,” Spike explained.

“Uh... Whisper?”

“It's like a private chat thing between players,” he explained as he tried to get away from three champions trying to kill him. “You know, like those chat boxes on PonyHoof. Anyway, usually in the game, the three chat boxes are full of spam...”

Twilight looked at the bottom screen, and there, the ‘Chat 1’ box is full of flowing texts about trades, sales, links to gold-selling sites, and she was sure she saw an ‘Apple Family's Cider’ ad somewhere there.

Spike continued, “...so the game created the ‘whisper feature’ to make conversation between two players easier.”

“Huh, that's actually pretty neat,” she said, impressed. She considered telling him that it was Rarity, but decided against it.

“It's probably Snips or Snails again, asking for help traveling some party dungeon or something. But if you're curious, which I'm certain that you are, then just click that arrow button right next to the close button.”

Twilight then clicked the arrow button, and the small window stopped blinking and expanded downward into a small chat box. There were three messages in the chat window.

“Reminder: Do NOT talk/give/share/type your username/password to anyone.”
“TheFabul...: Spikey Wikey!”
“TheFabul...: How are you today?”

Twilight casually began typing a reply.

“SpikeThe...: Hey there Rarity! This is Twilight, by the way.”

After a few seconds of nothing, Twilight began to hum along with the background music as she clicked on the Credits window again, putting the small whisper box behind it. She finally found the ‘Trainer Designs’ under the ‘Graphics And Artwork’. She clicked on it, and the flashing whisper box appeared in front of her monitor screen again, with a new message.

‘I guess this whisper chat box thing will go up front when there's a new reply. Pretty impressive.’

“TheFabul...: Twilight darling, how are you?”
“TheFabul...: I haven't seen you since last week.”
“TheFabul...: How was your week, by the way?”
“TheFabul...: I hope it wasn't stressful, darling.”
“TheFabul...: You should come by my boutique for some tea, dear.”
“TheFabul...: I would love to chat with you over some tea and crackers.”
“TheFabul...: Even though we have the technology now to talk in long distances...”
“TheFabul...: ...it's still always best to be able to talk to friends personally.”
“TheFabul...: Don't you agree, Twilight?”

Twilight blinked. “Wow... She types fast...” she whispered to herself as Rarity continued her onslaught of chat messages. Twilight read them all with a smile on her face.

“TheFabul...: ...and then Rainbow just wouldn't understand...”
“TheFabul...: ...how important advertising is, my dear.”
“TheFabul...: And I also hate the fact that this whisper box has a...”
“TheFabul...: ...character limit that I'm forced to cut my sentences...”
“TheFabul...: ...with these triple dots so those I talk to will know that...”
“TheFabul...: ...I am still not done talking.”

Twilight smiled as she mentally counted one...two...and...

“TheFabul...: Oh... Oh my. I do apologize Twilight.”

There was another pause. Twilight giggled when she imagined Rarity was chuckling nervously.

“TheFabul...: I guess I got carried away. Um...please respond?”

Twilight chuckled.

“SpikeThe...: It's okay Rarity. I'm still here. :)”

She heard about those ASCII ‘emoticons’ lately, and she heard that it's one way to know your mood to the one you're talking to online. At least, on informal conversations like between friends and family. She never tried doing that while she was chatting with other leaders or important ponies/beings in other nations though. Celestia forbids her of doing so. She remembered that she asked her mentor why, but Celestia just looked away with a small hint of a blush, and said that Twilight should just trust her.

“TheFabul...: Oh, good. I was scared there for a moment.”
“TheFabul...: So, I assume that you're just trying out the game?”
“SpikeThe...: Yeah. Something like that.”
“SpikeThe...: Rainbow forced me to try it, and I promised her that I'd giv”
“SpikeThe...: Huh, so there really is a character limit.”
“SpikeThe...: Anyway, I promised her that I'd try this game out.”
“TheFabul...: See? I told you those are annoying.”
“TheFabul...: I meant the character limit, darling.”
“TheFabul...: Anyway, I'll let you go now so you can enjoy the game.”
“TheFabul...: But you will visit me here in the boutique, right?”
“SpikeThe...: Of course! I'll be there this afternoon, Rarity.”
“TheFabul...: Wonderful! Thank you Twilight!”
“TheFabul...: I'll be expecting you.”
“TheFabul...: :)”
“TheFabulousRarity has logged off.”





“Exiting the game... Please wait...”

Rarity stared at her monitor screen, waiting for the game to close. When it did, her screen finally displayed her desktop, where a bright white Rarity close-up photo smiled at her.

“Oh, Rarity darling,” she said to herself, smiling, “such a lovely desktop background you have here.”

She stood up and walked beside her fabulous chair, and smiled. “Why, thank you darling. It's always nice to hear such lovely compliments.”

After that, she then turned around, and her smiling face sunk into a frown as she scanned her messy workplace. Small pieces of clothing of many colors were everywhere, strings and yarns, and paper sketches all over the floor. A few fallen mannequins, pencils, a measuring tape, different sizes and color of gems were lying around, and she swore that there wasn't a string of cobweb there before...

Rarity sighed in defeat. “I suppose Spikey Wikey's busy, now that Twilight's back.” She then brightened up with a smile as her horn glowed, and then a small feather duster hovered beside her. “Oh well. I've been sitting here for hours anyway. I could use the exercise.”





Finally free, Twilight closed the whisper box and then read the details of who designed the trainers. And behold, written in bold and big capital neon green letters was none other than...

“Lyra Heartstrings,” Twilight sighed in amusement. “Of course she'd be the one behind this. I mean, who else would be?” she asked herself as she read a small history of how the ‘human trainers’ were created.

To summarize it all, and two save you from a one-hour read, it only detailed that Lyra got the inspiration and ideas from...her imagination.

Spike was already sitting beside Twilight on the bed when she finally finished reading.

“I can't believe you read all of that,” Spike commented, shaking his head.

Twilight just smiled and closed the credits window. “I admit that it took longer than I hoped, but it was a pretty good read.” She took a breath and sighed. “I can't believe that I actually didn't bother talking to her before. She sure seems like a very imaginative pony.”

“No kidding,” Spike chuckled. “Now, get out of the hotel room and do some training already!”

“Right right...” Twilight replied, clicking at the closed white-painted wooden door.

When the character reached the door, the screen faded black, and then the character now stood in the middle of the hotel's main lobby. A window popped up, displaying a bowing human in black formal clothing on the left, and a message on the right that read “Thank you. If you ever need to stay for the night, please don't hesitate to stop by. Good luck with your adventure, trainer [SpikeTheDragon]!”

“Well, that wasn't very realistic,” Twilight mumbled as she clicked the ‘confirm’ button, the only button on the window.

Spike just chuckled. “You complain too much,” he said as Twilight clicked on the double glass doors of the lobby, actually walking through several characters in the process.

Twilight blinked as the game displayed a loading screen. “Huh? Are all characters ghosts that we can walk through them?”

Spike just rolled his eyes, deciding to ignore her question. “Let me check my team, Twilight,” he said as the game loaded a city-like environment.

“Wow, I wished Manehattan was as clean as...” she read the name of the city that appeared on the upper-left hand of the screen. “...uh...Saffron City? Are the places here named after colors?”

Spike blinked. “Saffron's a color?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Never mind then. So...you're saying about checking the team?”

“Just press the space bar.”

“Okie dokie,” Twilight pressed the space bar with a smile.

“Hey. Pinkie Pie already copyrighted that line,” he joked.

“Well, mine doesn't have a ‘lokie’,” she stuck her tongue out at him before returning to the screen.

A new window appeared, also divided into two main columns. At the very top of the window were two buttons: a highlighted ‘Pokémon Party’ and a grayed-out ‘Trainer's Inventory’. The left one displayed a 3d moving image of a large yellowish dragon with wings that were too small to lift itself. On the very top of the left column was the dragon's name, and below the name was its type, and at the very bottom of the column were it's stats. On the right column were divided into six rows, where each one had small icons, word abbreviations and numbers on them. The very top row was highlighted, and the small icon looked identical to the dragon on the left.

“Destructo?” Twilight read its name. “Dragon slash flying.”

“That's the Pokémon's name—er, nickname,” Spike explained. “I got that as a Dratini last month during the anniversary event. Sucks that I wasn't lucky enough to get a shiny, but hey! At least I got it for free!”

“What's so special about this dragon?” Twilight asked, turning the 3d dragon around with the mouse to study it's body.

“Dratini and other dragon-types are very rare to find in the game! Dragons are very powerful Pokémon that can take out almost any other Pokémon in the game. Also, trainers who actually manages to catch one can breed them and sell the egg to earn billions!” Spike explained, a little too excited.

Twilight just giggled at how happy and proud Spike sounded. “So, I bet you're already rich in this game.”

Spike's cheerful features drooped. “Not really. Special event Pokémon giveaways can't breed. Still,” he brightened once again, “I'm happy to actually have myself a Dragonite!”

Twilight wanted to point out that probably there are more players who also got one, if it was a giveaway, but decided not to destroy Spike's good mood.

“Check out that next one,” Spike pointed at the row below Dragonite's. Twilight clicked the row, and the Dragonite on the left column disappeared, along with its details, and was replaced by a two-legged wolf thing. “That one's a Lucario. Pretty cool Pokémon, huh? Snips and Snails and I really had a hard time finding one.” Spike smiled as he remembered how the trio spent countless hours trying to find one. “I ended up catching it, cause Snips and Snails forgot to buy pokéballs. I just bred the little dude and gave the eggs to Snips and Snails.”

Twilight smiled. She's impressed. Even with this game, Spike and many other players could actually form a bond of friendship, and can even strengthen their bonds by helping each other. But... “Countless hours?”

Spike blinked. Uh oh. “Um...”

Twilight fixed him a glare. “Spiiiike...”

“It was just that time, I swear Twilight!” Spike pleaded, bringing his claws together.

Twilight just rolled her eyes. “You know how expensive charging the power stones are these days, right?”

Spike wanted to point out that Twilight could use her magic to charge it up, but decided against it.

Twilight sighed and shook her head lightly. “We'll talk about that later.”

The two siblings' attentions were brought back to the game when another whisper window appeared. This time, it was from ‘SnailsLegends’.

“I am guessing that's Snails?” Twilight asked as she expanded the whisper window.

“Yeah,” Spike nodded.

“Reminder: Do NOT talk/give/share/type your username/password to anyone.”
“SnailsLe...: Wazzup Spike?”
“SnailsLe...: Wanna go to Cerulean Cave again?”
“SnailsLe...: Snips actually managed to open it.”

Twilight looked at Spike, who simply shrugged.

“Nah, we always fail that dungeon,” Spike said, leaning forward and began typing.

“SpikeThe...: Not today Snails.”
“SpikeThe...: I'm teaching Twilight how to play this game.”

“What does he meant by ‘open it’?” Twilight asked.

“The game has a limit of how many same party dungeons it can open at a time. Cerulean Cave is one of the toughest party dungeon there is, and I don't think that anypony has ever finished it. A few managed to reach the last floor, but there was a very powerful Pokémon there that can defeat anypony!”

Twilight didn't understand any of it, but decided not to ask for details. If she gets hooked, then she'll ask about it in the future. Right now though, she needs to focus on the basics of the game, and see if she can ‘get hooked’.

“SnailsLe...: Ms Spakrle is back?”
“SnailsLe...: Sweet!”

Twilight actually cringed at the misspelled word, her name of all words. Spike took notice, and chuckled.

“Yeah, he and Snips does that all the time,” he shrugged. “What can I say? They're still in elementary school.”

Twilight nodded. “Good point.”

“SnailsLe...: Well, me and Snips are gonna go ask somepony else.”
“SnailsLe...: Later Spike! And enjoy the gaem Miss Sparkle!”

At least it wasn't her name that was misspelled this time.

“SpikeThe...: Yeah, good luck!”
“SpikeThe...: You guys will DEFINITELY need it!”
“SnailsLe...: Thanks Spike!”
“SnailsLe...: Well be sure to capture Mewtwo!”
“SnailsLegends has changed his status to [Busy].”

Twilight decided to ignore the missed apostrophe. “What does ‘busy’ in the game mean?”

“The usual meaning of it,” Spike casually said as he closed the whisper and team windows. He then changed the angle of the camera view, and started clicking on the pathway ahead. “It usually means that players are doing something, and prefer not to be disturbed, or whispered.”

“Where are we going?” Twilight asked, trying her best to ignore that Spike's character was running through other standing characters on the clean concrete road.

“We're gonna let you battle a wild Pokémon,” Spike simply said as his character reached a large building. He clicked on the very large concrete doors, and the screen displayed a still-image loading screen.

“Wow,” Twilight said, “what pony is that?”

The loading screen was a fiery Rapidash, galloping in a very dark forest.

“That's called a Rapidash. Kinda strange that they look like the unicorns from Saddle Arabia though...”

Twilight blinked, and nodded. “Huh, you're right.”

“Unicorns of Saddle Arabia who have manes and tails of an angry Twilight,” he chuckled, earning a glare from his sister. “Eheheheh... Anyway... I'll let you take over now.” Spike scooted a bit so Twilight could sit directly in front of her computer.

She grabbed the mouse with her magic, and stared blankly at the natural scenery. From where Spike's character stood, a tall building that they ‘went through’ earlier stood behind him. Tall trees that she has never seen before stood as barriers on the east and west. There were small ledges up ahead, and tall grasses which were even taller than all other players walking around the area.

“Where did the city go?”

“That large building is called the city gate. It separates the city from the routes. Don't ask. Anyway, we're now in a place of what we call a route.”

“It said that we're in Route Six?”

“Eeyup. See those tall grasses over the ledges?” Spike asked, pointing at the tall grasses in the distance. “Usually, Pokémon can be found in tall grasses.”

“Like your Destructo?” she grinned, earning a soft glare from Spike. “Sorry. I was just teasing. Please continue.”

Spike rolled his eyes with an annoyed smile. “Anyway, yeah, like my Dragonite,” he explained as Twilight clicked the mouse over the tall grasses, and then the character started running towards the designated spot. “By the way, there are two modes of battle in this game.”

“Two modes?” Twilight asked as Spike's character jumped over the ledge, and stopped in the tall grasses.

Spike nodded. “Yeah. You can change it to whatever you want through the options. Anyway, the two modes of battle are ‘standard turn-based mode’ and ‘real-time free-move mode’. When you log into the game, the battle is set to the standard battle by default. Many players considered this a bug, while others are having a petition of saving their chosen modes and not reset back to standard when they log-out or get disconnected.” He looked at Twilight, who only blinked in response. “Anyway, just walk around the grass until you meet up with a wild Pokémon.”

“Okay. Shall I keep clicking or can I use the keyboard for moving?”

“You can use the keyboard though. Arrow keys or the WASD keys.” He shrugged. “Whichever you prefer.”

Twilight nodded and settled with the arrow keys, since those felt like the proper keys to use, for her at least.

As the character walked around, sounds of footsteps on grass and rustling noises could be heard against the adventurous background music theme. After a few seconds, the character stopped moving just as soon as a large pokéball appeared on the screen. The route's music changed into something more upbeat as the pokéball opened and appeared like it ‘devoured’ the screen into black. The black screen was suddenly splashed by long leaves and then a grassy field faded into the screen, revealing a creature on the upper-left corner, and Spike's character on the lower-right, his back facing the real-life players.

As the creature roared, sparkling stars erupted around it, making Spike jump from his seat and leaned closer to the screen.

“Oh my gosh, Twilight!” he exclaimed, too excited that Twilight mistook it that she must have done something wrong.

“What!? What did I do!?” Twilight asked, feeling panic taking over.

“Twilight! Not only did you found a shiny in your first time, but you found a Suicune of all Pokémon!” Spike turned to her with the biggest smile he ever had.

“Is...that a good thing?” Twilight slowly asked.

“Good? No! This is great! Fantastic even!”

There was a sudden click sound, and Spike's character threw a pokéball, sending out his Dragonite, who roared as it stood on his spot in the screen. Because the Dragonite was too tall for the screen to fit, the game auto-zoomed out a bit, enough to fit the Dragonite on the screen.

Spike took in a breath and tried to calm himself. “Okay Twilight, this is your first time in a standard Pokémon battle. Whoever is the fastest will act first,” he explained as he motioned for Twilight to return to the game. “There are four menus on the screen to choose,” he continued, pointing at the four buttons on the lower-right hand of the screen, just below Dragonite's health bar. “Here's how it works. Click the Battle button.”

Twilight nodded and hovered the mouse to the button. She clicked on it, and four new buttons appeared.

“These are now Dragonite's known moves. The point here is to lower your opponent's H.P. to yellow or red if you want to catch it. You can bring your foe's H.P. to zero if you just want to knock it out for experience, but...” he clapped his claws together again, “please catch it, Twilight!”

Twilight smiled awkwardly and nervously. “I-I'll try...?” She gulped and selected ‘Earthquake’. ‘I have no idea what I'm doing’...

The Dragonite moved first. It flapped its wings several times, sending it airborne, which Twilight found impossibly funny. It then growled a bit as it mightily slammed its two massive feet back on the ground, shaking the whole screen. Finally, Suicune was struck, and its health bar went down to yellow, almost reaching the red zone. Then, a message displayed on the bottom.

“Not very effective?” Twilight read, having no clue what that actually meant.

Spike just nodded. “Are you sure you're new at this game, Twilight? 'Cause from the way I see it, you're looking like a complete natural at this.” He smiled as Suicune predictably used an Ice Beam attack, immediately lowering Dragonite's health bar to zero.

“What!?” Twilight gasped. “That's no fair!” she complained as a ‘super effective’ message screen appeared. “How could a dragon be ‘knocked out’ just like that with one simple ice beam?” she shook her head as the Dragonite cried lowly and was sent back to its pokéball. “That just doesn't make sense!”

“Twilight,” Spike called in amusement as a new window appeared for the player to select another Pokémon to send out, or to click a button to run away. “It's just a game.”

“But still! The creators could at least apply some real life logic into this game!”

Spike just rolled his eyes. “Just pick a new Pokémon to send out, Twilight.”

Twilight huffed and clicked on the Lucario, since she doesn't really know what the other four were.

A pokéball was thrown and the Lucario growled as it jumped in the air before landing on its spot in the battlefield.

“Nice choice,” Spike commented. Twilight clicked the ‘battle’ button again, but Spike held a claw up. “Wait wait! I told you to capture it!”

“B-but I wan't to avenge your dragon-thingy's death!” She blinked. That sounded wrong.

Spike rolled his eyes with a low groan. “Twilight. Just a game. Remember?” He looked lamely at Twilight's embarrassed smile. “Whatever. Don't kill it please? I really want that! Just click the ‘cancel’ button there.”

Twilight nodded and clicked on the said button, making the four menu button to return to the main ones.

“Now, here's how one catch a Pokémon,” he said as he pointed at the ‘items’ button. “Click that button.”

Twilight did was Spike asked. All four buttons on the lower-right went gray as another larger window appeared in the middle of the screen. The screen had four large buttons: Recovery, Pokéball, Berries and Status Items. Suddenly, the camera angle on the background changed into a slightly spinning birds-eye view.

Spike pointed at the Pokéball button. Twilight clicked it and the window changed, displaying different kinds of pokéballs.

“These are the catching items used to capture wild Pokémon,” Spike explained as Twilight hovered the mouse to the pokéballs, reading their description that were displayed on the bottom part of the window. “Ordinary wild Pokémon can be captured by almost any kinds of pokéballs, but...”

Twilight cut in, “but this Su-eee-kyun is not an ordinary wild Pokémon, if I were to judge your reaction from earlier.”

Spike nodded. “Yeah. It's in its shiny form, which is ultra rare, and is one of the legendary Pokémon in the game!” He then turned back to the screen, staring at the Suicune from a zoomed-out idle view. “Legendaries are one-of-a-kind Pokémon in the game. Only one exist, meaning that only one trainer can capture and train them. If we're lucky, I'll be the only trainer to have a Suicune in the entire world!”

Twilight rolled her eyes in amusement.

“...for only thirty days...” Spike sighed. “I read in the forums that captured legendaries only have thirty days to stay with whoever caught them before the game automatically releases them back into the wild.” He shrugged. “The developers said that it's for fairness, and because they're ‘legendary’.”

“I think I get it,” Twilight nodded with a smile. “It's only fair for them to regain their availability to be captured again, so other players can get the fair chance to catch and train them.”

Spike nodded, and frowned. “Drat. I ran out of Master Balls...” He tsk'ed. “The best ball I have left is a Great Ball... Just...great...” he groaned.

“So, any of these can catch that Poke-a-mon, right?” Twilight asked, moving the mouse up and down repeatedly.

Spike nodded. “Yeah, but I think we should try and use the Grea—”

Twilight clicked the Net Ball.

Spike blinked, wondering what just happened.

The pokéball selection window disappeared, and the the camera angle returned to normal. It zoomed-out, until Spike's character appeared, holding the Net Ball. He threw it at the Suicune, and upon contact, the camera zoomed to the Suicune that became white and disappeared. Twilight smiled as the Net Ball closed and landed on the spot where Suicune was once was.

Spike held his breath as the Net Ball wiggled. One...

Twilight clapped her hooves happily, while Spike's eyes shrunk to dots. The Net Ball wiggled again... Two...

Twilight arched an eyebrow as she stared at Spike who was nervously biting his fingernails. The Net Ball wiggled again... Three...

Everything went dead quiet for Spike. He actually felt his heart stopped beating as sweat flowed like waterfall. The Net Ball didn't move.

There was a clicking sound as the Net Ball blinked black for a moment, stars sparked from it, and then the upbeat battle music instantly changed into a more congratulatory-type themed music. A message window appeared at the bottom of the screen, congratulating the player that they have successfully caught the wild Pokémon. And there was also a button that says ‘block whispers’ at the far bottom-right of the message window.

As Spike finally realized that everything wasn't a dream, a very loud pop-up noise erupted as another congratulatory pop-up window appeared on the upper-right of the screen. On that window was Suicune's full-body image on the left, and on the right was a message that read “[SpikeTheDragon] successfully caught a [Shiny] Suicune!” Below the message were two buttons: ‘Send A Whisper’ and ‘Close’.

As the screen faded into black and returned to the grassy field, the speakers let out a series of whisper pop-up noises as the screen was flooded by so many blinking whisper pop-ups. The noise was replaced by a loud screeching noise, and suddenly, the screen became blue with white texts, and suddenly went to black as Twilight and Spike heard a ‘beep!’.

The two siblings blinked at the booting screen.

“Oh...” Spike suddenly said. “So that's what the ‘block whisper’ option was for...”