//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Introductions Pt. 2 // Story: Equestria, I Choose You! // by BronyDJ //------------------------------// Hey, BronyDJ here! Just wanted to say Heyo and thanks sooo much for all of the love you guys give my fic, You guys are awesome! I'm not home, starting this chapter. I'm actually babysitting my nieces at a family party, I got bored and went on the computer. The keyboard is one of those really weird curvy ones with a very annoying design that's really hard to type on. Also, the little girls are laughing at the fact that I'm doing something MLP related. Anyways, on with the story! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Celestia and Luna were staring at nothing but fog as they entered Stephen's sleeping mind, At first there was silence, Then, there was the unbelievably loud roar of a gigantic crowd cheering for some reason. A festival of sorts, perhaps? Maybe a some celebration of a person? Instead, the fog cleared to reveal that the Royal Sisters were seated in a humungous coliseum type arena, a small playing field in the middle. They were seated close enough to see the two figures in the middle, a tall blonde haired woman, and a slightly younger man with dark hair and a black t-shirt. "Ladies and gentlemen," a voice on the PA shouted. Despite the roar of the crowd, they heard the announcer clearly. "We are proud to present today's Sinnoh League Championship battle!" Celestia and Luna's eyes widened, They had heard that Stephen had to battle his creatures to restore them, as told through the perspective of the Elements, but now they would get to see the creatures' might up close. "In the red corner, all the way from the Hoenn region, already the succeeding Champion of the Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto regions, Stephen!" The Princesses observed the young man; he was calm, and determined, not cocky or nervous. He had obviously been in this situation before. "And it the blue corner, the defending Champion of the Sinnoh Pokémon League, Cynthia!" The crowd erupted at her name, and she waved to the crowd with a simple smile, and turned her attention to Stephen. "I've heard from Steven, Blue, and Lance that you are not a Trainer to be taken lightly," Cynthia commended Stephen. "That you were a strong trainer who easily overpowered them. I must warn you however," she reached for her first Pokeball. "That this will be one battle neither one of us will forget!" The crowd roared in anticipation. The challenger Stephen smiled and nodded, reaching at his sash for his first Pokémon. "Go, Spiritomb!" the Sinnoh Champion sent out her usual starting Pokémon, ready for battle. "Go," Stephen finally called out. "Vulcanus!" A fiery primate appeared from the ball, ready for a battle. Luna and Celestia watched in awe as the two humans masterfully commanded and strategized each move in battle. How could they be able to tame such powerful and intimidating creatures? Celestia wondered. Could he be helpful or harmful to our society? Luna thought otherwise. How could I have been so blind? She watched in admiration of the new creatures and their powers. Of course he wouldn't be a threat, he battles more for a kind of sport. His qorld is very intriguing as well. Their full attention was on the battle. The battle, though very intense, went surprisingly quick. The Spiritomb fell to the Infernape, who fell to her Milotic, which was burned by Stephen's Ampharos' Fire Punch. His Ampharos, who was frozen by the Milotic's Ice Beam, was taken out by her Lucario. The Lucario was taken out by Stephen's Arcanine, which was unfortunately paralyzed by her Togekiss. Stephen called out his Staraptor, which was one-KO'd by a critical-hitting Shock Wave from the Togekiss before it could even land its Close Combat. It was here that Stephen brought out Nova, his Gardevoir. Cynthia saw this and inwardly gasped. The other Champions had said his Gardevoir was very powerful, and that she should do her best to take it out as quickly as possible. She sent out her Roserade, much to Stephen's surprise, and used Toxic, badly poisoning the Psychic type. That didn't stop Stephen from having the Gardevoir use a Psychic attack to one-hit KO the Grass/Poison type. Next was the part that Stephen feared. "It's been a great battle, Stephen!" Cynthia admitted, sweat and worry visible on her brow. "This will be a close one." Stephen remained silent and concentrated on the next moves. He hoped Gardevoir wasn't hurt too bad from the posion. Too late, though, as Cynthia sent out her strongest, most powerful Pokémon: Garchomp. "Damn," Stephen said quietly. "I don't think Nova will be able to get Garchomp's HP down a bit." "Garchomp, use Dragon Rush!" Cynthia's Dragon/Ground type was surrounded by a purple aura, then charged at the weakened Psychic type. The latter tried to counter with a Thunder Punch, but to no avail. When the dust cleared, Nova was on the ground, her eyes glazed over: the universal sign of fainting. "Here goes nothing!" Stephen pulled at his final Pokeball. The Royal Sisters watched closely to see how this would play out. "Tempest, it's all up to you!" "Oh my!" The announcer, who had been giving quite the entertaining and informative commentary, had summed up the situation in a dramatic fashion. "It's been a while since Cynthia's been brought to her last Pokémon! Could Stephen's last Pokémon be his lucky charm, or will Cynthia retain her Champion title? It's all up to this final round!" The Princesses watched as the giant leviathan Water/Flying type Gyarados appeared on the stadium. Quite the fearsome serpent! the two thought in unison, though they didn't know it. "Garchomp!" Cynthia called out a command. "Dragon Rush!" The purple dragon's aura glowed again, and started to rush at Tempest. Stephen reacted accordingly. "Tempest! Counter with Waterfall!" the challenger commanded. The Dragon/Ground type and the Water/Flying type were heading right at each other at very high speeds. Right before the Princesses could find out the outcome, they heard a voice. "What are you doing in here?" The two turned to see a short bipedal creature in white and green, they recognized it as Nova the Gardevoir from the battle. Before the two could answer, the Psychic type said, "If you ever do anything like this again, I will tell Stephen, and you won't like him when he's angry. If you thought you were barely making progress with us now? Keep this up and it'll be impossible. Psychic!" A light blue flash filled up the Princesses' visions, and they found themselves back in the Throne Room feeling guilty once again, sitting for a moment in an awkward silence. "Despite what we learned about Stephen," Celestia's voice broke the emptiness. "I still feel that we are going through this the wrong way." "We are wise," Luna added, "But I suppose less personal and more appropriate ways should get us some better progress." "Yes, of course" Celestia agreed, and looked to the nearest guard, and did a double take at the very familiar face. "Captain Armor, when did you get back to Canterlot?" "Just a while ago, Princess, on the news that there was a new, potentially hostile creature in Canterlot." "Actually, Shining Armor," Luna said guiltily. "We feel that we may be doing more harm than he ever would." The guard looked confused, but realized as the Princesses explained the occurrences of the past two days. "Now it should be up to Twilight Sparkle, your sister, and her fellow Elements of Harmony to resolve this issue. Can youfindthem and bring them here for us?" "I'll get my sister and her friends, Princesses." Shining Armor saluted. "Anything to help the effort." "Thank you, Prince Armor." the aforementioned blushed at the use of the royal title that he barely used. Celestia continued. "It's best that we start Fluttershy's phase of introductions. Those creatures are quite interesting, and I have confidence that Fluttershy's good nature will be a good way to get to him quickly. They contemplated what else could help their cause, and waited for the Elements of Harmony to arrive. They'd be our only hope to reach him, and he may be Equestria's only hope, if the prophecy the Sisters had found was true.