~Chapter 7~
When Mew spoke, he almost made me take a double-take. His voice now had a sort of… seriousness that it lacked before. Or, at least, as serious as someone who talked scarily similar to a child would. “So, we’ve already been over Pokemon, right?” Pausing to allow my nod, he continued. “Well, then that’s good. You already know the basics of them. Now, I could spend hours going into detail about them, and explaining every little part about them, but really, who has time for that?
Apparently noticing my expression drop when he said that, he hastily added, “You’ll find out more as time goes on, though, I promise you that!” Smiling at my small, but satisfying victory, I allowed him to continue.
“So, what next? Oh, I know! You need to know about moves! Every Pokemon has a different set of moves. Each Pokemon is limited to four moves at any given time. These moves can be anything, from breathing fire, to shooting lightning, to playing time and space!” At my scared look, he continued. “Of course, not everyone has access to these moves. Every Pokemon has a set number of moves, limited to their species. Each species has access to usually between one and two-hundred unique moves. Right now, I think there’s only four Pokemon even capable of using moves to alter things as important as time, and even less for things like space. So yeah, Pokemon moves are awesome!”
Deciding now would be a good time to ask questions, I quickly began to formulate several. A second later, when I had deemed them worthy of being asked, the questioning began. “Okay, so first things first, Mew. Do you happen to have any sort of parchment, scroll, or paper?” From the look he gave me, I gleamed he did not have anything of the sort. “Okay, then I suppose I’ll just have to make do. Thank Celestia for memory spells.”
“Wait, Twilight, before you ask anything else, I was wondering what exactly you meant by paper, parchment, and scrolls? I’ve never even heard of anything like that before.”
“What.” I don’t think my voice has ever came out more flat than it did at that moment. No. There was no way. They couldn’t possibly… “You know, the thing you write on? You guys do have a written language, right?” Dear Celestia, if they didn’t know how to read and write, I was seriously going to have problems here.
“Writing? Oh yeah, writing! Yeah, of course we know how to write, Twilight. We’re not barbaric. Why, do you want something to write with?”
Seeing the want- no, the need for something to write with, Mew left with a “Be right back!” He flew up to the top of the crystal room, and disappeared over a previously unseen ridge on the side. The floating pink feline came back but a moment later, carrying… a blue leaf with small spines spiking out from the sides, about the size of the average sheet of notebook paper, a light tan quill, several green berries about the size of a golf ball, and what appeared to be a variation of an ink bottle.
Holding out the items for me to take from his paw, Mew joyfully stated, “Alright, here you go Twilight! I got you the best quill and the best berries I could find! Oh, and before you try to eat them, the berries are meant for writing, not eating, so they're not gonna taste that good.”
Oh Celestia… yes, there were going to be problems. Taking the items from him with my mouth, I placed the on the ground for further examination. There was no possible way he expected me to write with… this. I mean, come on. Nopony has used berries as ink for centuries, since when has anypony used a leaf as something to write on, and I don’t even know what type of bird that quill came from.
“Uhh… Mew?”
“Ye-es?” He sang.
“What… what is that?”
“Well, duh! It’s writing stuff.” He spoke with such conviction, I would have been inclined to believe him if I couldn't see the items in front of me. Unfortunately, said items were very much with my viewing range.
I sighed, too low for him to hear.“So then, could you explain to me why a leaf is included with these things?”
“So you have something to write on, Twilight. Are you feeling okay? You’re acting like you've never seen something like this before.”
Wait a minute. If Mew brought me a leaf, quill, and berries, and had no knowledge of paper, parchment, or scrolls, then that could mean only one thing. “Oh dear Celestia, you ponies don’t have books, do you?!”
“Oh sure we do! It’s just, well, they’re kinda not ours. They belong to the humans. We never bothered too much with things like books, mostly due to the fact that most Pokemon don’t want to go through the process of making paper, glue, ink, and the like.”
“So… yes to the books?”
“Yup! But we don’t really have many here. There’s a couple scattered around the Tree, though, and I bet if you asked around right, then you could probably find out who owns them.”
Okay, so paper is still possible. I'll just have to get some from the humans later. Now, I really don't want to resort to writing on a leaf, so I guess I'll just... give it back?
"Hey Mew," I began. "I think I'll be fine without the... leaf for now."
"Are you sure Twilight? I mean, if you really want to make sure you know this stuff, you really should write it down. It'll help you remember it for one, and you'll have something to look back on for future reference."
"Yes Mew, I- I think I'll manage."
"Well, alrighty then, Twilight. Can't say I didn't offer you, though." Mew's eyes took on a light pink hue, and with a small flash of light, the items were gone.
"Mew!" I gasped, startled beyond belief. Did Mew just do magic? No, there was no possible way! First of all, he lacked a horn to perform the spells. Also, why did his eyes glow pink right before it happened? Unless... "Did you just use a move?"
“Yup!”
I stood there, waiting for him to tell me what move he had used. After several seconds passed by, mainly consisting of me staring expectantly at him, I sighed in exasperation. “Uh, Mew?” I started. “Aren’t you going to tell me what the move was?”
“Oh, you wanted to know the move was I used?” Noticing that I wasn’t answering his what I had hoped to have been a rhetorical question, Mew continued. “Easy, I used Teleport!”
Eyes going wide, I began to talk at what some would consider the shouting sound range, positively giddy at the news. “You mean to tell me, that you have the ability to TELEPORT?!”
“Well, kind of, but not really. You see, I know the move Teleport, and I may be a psychic type, but if I were to forget Teleport, then, well, I wouldn’t be able to teleport any more.”
“This is such a strange finding! Oh, I can’t wait to study you, and see what else you can do! If only I had some parchment and a quill, then I could write everything down as I saw it.”
“You know, if you really want, I can go back and grab the stuff for writing again. I don’t think it’s that far…”
Immediately sensing that if he got the leaf, there would be no getting out of it this time, I decided to nip that in the bud before it could sprout and begin to have many, many unwanted and unneeded foals.
“Oh, no no no!” I said, putting on my most believable fake smile. “ I assure you that I am perfectly happy and fine without your… writing utensils.”
“Well okay, if you’re sure you don’t want it… Hey wait, weren’t you going to ask me some questions earlier?”
Remembering the questions I had prepared earlier, I hastily agreed, although this time my smile was genuine. “Yes, thank you for reminding me, Mew! Now, here is the first and most important: you earlier said every Pokemon can have a maximum of four moves, but their species can learn about one or two-hundred of them. What happens if, say, a Pokemon were to learn five moves? Or if they were to learn a move outside their move pool?”
“Oh, that’s simple. If a Pokemon tried to learn five moves, then they would automatically forget one of their old moves. The move forgotten will be most likely the move that is most similar to the new move, but in the case of none of the old moves being in any way similar to the new move, then the move forgotten will be randomly chosen. If a Pokemon were to learn a move outside of it’s movepool, well, that happens all the time! When Pokemon breed, their child has the chance of learning moves that their parents know. In fact, species learning new moves isn’t uncommon, but at the same time you won’t be discovering a new move every day.”
Okay, I think that cleared up everything about the Pokemon moves. Now, a question on something he mentioned… “Alright, so Mew, I heard you say something about Pokemon breeding. I would like to know, are Pokemon foals born the same way as our foals?”
Mew seemed to pause and think for a second, before answering. “Well, I don’t know how your kids are born, but I do know how Pokemon are born! Okay, so here’s how it works when a Pokemon is born. You see, Twilight, when two Pokemon love each other very much, and they belong to the same egg group, then their love will come together, and it will become a real thing. Once it gathers together solid enough, then poof! An egg will appear. Finally, the mom and dad just have to be patient, and soon enough, that egg will hatch, and out will come a Pokemon.”
“Oh, well that’s convenient. I was afraid it would be something different, and completely inappropriate. Our foals are born in a very similar way as Pokemon, it seems. For ponies, our love will begin to coalesce if we love each other enough, and after a bit, that love will become tangible. Usually, a set of parents can tell when their foal is getting ready to appear. They usually use that time to prepare for the foal, and tell everypony they think should know about it. After that, everything is the exact same. Well, excluding the egg part. Ponies just skip straight to the live baby part.”
“Alright Twilight, so is there anything else you needed to know about the moves?”
The corners of my mouth curled upwards into a U-shape. “Actually, yes. There is one other question I have for you.”
Taking this as a time to do a backflip in midair, Mew answered me midflip. “What is it, Twilight?”
Eagerly, I posed my question. “Okay, so if every Pokemon has access to four moves unique to their species, what moves can you do?”
“Hmm? Oh, my four moves?” Smiling sheepishly, he floated down, until he was nearly brushing up against the floor. “Well, you see Twilight, I don’t really know four moves.”
“Buh- But I thought you said each Pokemon knows four moves, taken from their species move pool?” Celestia, did he not know all four of the moves he could? Why, if I was a Pokemon, I’d be in quite a hurry to learn as many different moves as quickly as I could!
“Well, not every Pokemon has to know all four moves. Believe it or not, some Pokemon choose to learn only one move at a time.”
“So then how many moves do you know?” Closing my eyes and looking away, I began to chant silently to myself. Oh dear Celestia, please don’t be one, please don’t be one, please don’t be one…
When Mew next spoke, it did not matter what kind of voice he spoke in. It could have been a soft, silvery voice, like something coming straight from the Princess’s mouth. The words could have flown gently, as if traveling on a feather. Or it could have been a low, guttural growl of something straight from the deepest, darkest depths of Tartarus. Rasps, barks, grunts, and the like would not have been out of place had this been the case. No, what mattered was his words. His words, which I will remember always, no matter what happens. Because if I ever forgot them, then I will have forgotten Mew.
“All of them.”