Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman


Chapter 13

It’s a little past noon when we see a split in the road, one way heading into the forest along a dirt road littered with leaves. According to the sign, the forest road leads to the Primal Reserve and Breeding Center, while the other leads towards Autumnwash Town, though the town is much further.

“Well, I said we should probably head to the town first. We are going to need food, and healing items beyond a few potions. I suggest we head for the Breeding Center another day, and we don’t know what we might run into in that forest. Especially when it gets dark.” The other two nod in agreement, and we head to Autumnwash.

It’s a long, but simple walk, and I can even see some Mankey at one point, staring out of the forest at us. It would’ve been really bad to run across them in the dark.

Not much to do along the road, we decide to recall our pokémon. The fewer of us that can get separated the better, and all our teams are rather tired after our training sessions. Unfortunately we didn’t find any pools of water, so Carvanha didn’t get a chance to level up. Aside from Spheal, our water types are currently behind our others. It was never a problem like this in the games.

As we close in on the town, we breathe a collective sigh of relief. We’ve been on our feet literally all day, and my feet are hurting. With Twilight and Rarity’s newness to their human bodies, they’re a lot worse off, though they aren’t complaining. It looks like Rarity has managed to get a pretty basic game installed on her éTech, which looks kinda fun.

But at the moment, I’m living my favorite game, so I’d rather not bother. Not like any silly app games could distract me for long in a world like this. We get to town and head for the Pokémon Center. Our pokémon aren’t hurt, so I just request that we get a place to rest. We see a few other trainers there as well, but for now I’d rather sit down than try a battle.

After getting our room for the night, we sit down, the room a doubled-up bunk beds arrangement. I think the Nurse here was giving me dirty looks over not getting my own room, but I really don’t care. Besides, I don’t really see the huge problem. I’d actually rather not see the girls naked. I mean, human-form or not, they’re still ponies! Eh, oh well, guess it’s still kinda rude. Don’t care though, I’m tired, and I don’t want to have to find them in the morning when they aren’t human anymore.


With a jaw-cracking yawn, I sit up in my bed. I’d been too tired last night to really pay attention to much, and my clothes are kinda rumpled and I can feel the mild itch that accompanies sleeping in my clothes. Also, the Pokéballs were really uncomfortable pressed into my skin like that for the night. I must’ve been more tired than I thought; I apparently didn’t move at all from when I flopped onto the bed.

Looking around, I see that Twilight’s awake and sitting in a chair off next to a wall, in human form. She’s absently picking food off of a plate on the arm of the chair while reading a magazine. Rarity appears to still be asleep on her bed, a pillow clutched in her pony arms.

I sit up on my bed and try to readjust my clothes so they don’t look too slept-in. I was thinking about how our bits are running out and we’d have to resort to getting some cash the usual way. I could probably take one of the trainers here, granted they didn’t have more pokémon than me. Money, I realized, will be much more important than in the games, not always being able to instantly fly to a Pokémon Center for healing, not to mention food water and shelter.

Suddenly I realized how I pretty much halted the economy in the games with my hoarding of money, swearing I’ll spend the $9,000,000 later. Really.

Twilight gives me a barely-attentive ‘hello’ from her magazine, which I can see is a ‘Science Weekly’ magazine. at least she’s reading something interesting. there’s something on there about galaxies possibly being massive pokémon, and pokémon from the stars having their own type. Heh, as if. Then again, Deoxys only barely qualified as a Psychic type... I make a note to look through that when Twi’s finished.

Rubbing the last of the sleep-crud from my eyes, I step out into the hall, then almost have to duck back in as a pair of young trainers, one a young boy in shorts and the other a young girl in camping attire, rush past, screeching and giggling. I feel a weird sensation, looking at two perfect representations of common trainer archetypes go by like that.

Oh well, at least there’s more than just molds based on class. Right? I step down to the common area of the Pokémon Center, and feel a rush of relief as I see dozens of different trainers, only the two youngsters conforming to the templates the games gave my expectations. A tall guy with bright green hair is chatting up the Nurse here, who is smiling and laughing at whatever he says, and an older woman is grooming a Pikach- no, wait, that’s just a tall Dedenne. I feel a rush of sensation deep within, and have to fight back tears. It takes me several moments to realize it’s because I haven’t heard truly human voices in so long, besides Myrna’s and Anne’s. And even they had weird timbre’s to their voices now that I think about it. I guess Professor Basswood and the other Nurse Joy count too, but the realization hadn’t sunk in then. All these people... jeez.

It feels more like home than Ponyville ever did, and I don’t think I’m going to stay here more than a week or two. I wanted some interaction. And in this world, the best form of interaction is...

A shortish girl comes up to me and asks if I’m a trainer. At my nod, she smiles. “Wanna battle?” I can’t say no to that! She’s adorable, and I hope that’s not an indicator she’s doing exactly what I’m trying to do, and sniping weaker trainers.

“Alright, let’s take this outside. Wanna set the rules, or should I?”

“There’s a Battle Park over by the gym; I’m training to face down Winston for my first badge!”

“Alright then. Two pokémon each, no recovery items, and no switching out. Sound good little girl?”

“Sure does! My name’s Amy, by the way.” She offers her hand, and I take it. Her shock of pink hair could rival Pinkie’s, but it all spikes backwards, rather than curl in every direction. Skipping, she leads me to this Battle Park, which is a really nice place. It’s got a big field with a moat surrounding it for water-types. I guess the local gym leader must help sponsor it, or something.

We take our places at opposite ends of one of the battle fields, the layout and markings identical to how they are seen in the show, if a bit bigger. I pull Geodude’s ball off of my belt-clip and enlarge it. I toss the white sphere high into the air. “Alright Geodude, time to go!”

After the bright red light fades into the roundish form of my rock pokémon, he holds up his arms into fists with a confident “Geo!”

The girl smiles confidently, then throws out her own pokéball, the pink confetti effect showing she used a heal ball to catch a... Skitty! No fair, those’re so cute- and effective, I know. But that thing is so adorable, and looks so fluffy! I make a mental note to ask if I can pet it later.

“Alright Geodude, Magnitude, make it count!”

“Quick, Mr. Fluffles, Fake Out!” Amy cries, and the Skitty looks confused, just long enough for Geodude to hesitate. The stinging slap to the face surprises Geodude plenty for real, as the Skitty rolls back to gain distance. “Now use Ice Beam, just like the tutor showed you!” Crap.

The little cat inhales, and a tiny ball of ice forms in front of its mouth. The blue-white beam lances out just as Geodude is recovering and frosts up one of his arms and part of his face, though he looks more pissed than inconvenienced.

“Alright Geodude, improv time. Ice Punch!” Hey, use what you have, right? Geodude leaps into the air, and goes for a punch... and the layer of ice breaks and shatters with the movement, making it a cold-as-hell punch, but not a true Ice Punch. Oh well, close enough.

“Mr. Fluffles, use Tail Whip!” Amy shouts, and the Skitty smacks Geodude in the face again, aggravating him enough that he brings his arms from their more defensive positions.

“Geodude, Defense Curl, then Rollout!” Not only will it help balance out his defense, but it’ll boost Rollout’s power too. That said, if ‘Ice Punch’ counts, that’s four moves.

Geodude tucks his arms in, then blitzes like a motorcycle wheel at the Skitty, bowling through poor ‘Mr. Fluffles’ and sending the pokémon flying. It’s recalled mid-air by Amy, who looks distraught.

“Alright, Flutterby, do your thing!” Amy shouts, throwing out a Mothim. The pokémon is, based on its name alone, a moth-like pokémon, but I’m not going to argue too hard with a little girl on this. If she wants to name it like a butterfly...

“Sorry, but Bug types aren’t that good against Rock Types. After a Normal type, you’ve kinda already put yourself in trouble. Geodude, keep up your Rollout!”

“Oh yeah? Flutterby, use your Hidden Power!” the Mothim responds with a sudden icey-blue coating over its body as it goes into a head-on collision course with Geodude. Uh oh, that’s not going to end well for either of our pokémon...

Surprisingly, the bug-type manages to take the hit pretty well, and knocks Geodude back mid-spin and into a daze, the rock pokémon’s eyes spinning lazily in their sockets. This is just not his week, is it?

“Not bad Amy, but I’m not done yet. Go Carvanha!” I toss the manic fish-pokémon into the nearby pool. “You wanna use attacks, fine, but you risk getting Flutterby too close to the water. Everyone knows Mothim and Venemoth can’t fly with wet wings!”

Amy looks honestly scared, and somewhat unsure. “Uhm... Oh, I know! Use Signal Beam! Let’s put those scales to use!” Wait, has she been tutoring the hell out of her pokémon? She mentioned one with the Ice Beam, and Rainbow Scales are sometimes the currency for some move tutors... or was it move deleters? Crap, I can ask her after the battle!

“Come on Carvanha, dive under the water, can’t hit what they can’t see!”

The fish glares at me fleetingly, looking like it’d rather stay and fight, but reluctantly goes underwater, the multi-hued beam scattering harmlessly as it hit the water. Amy scrunches her face adorably at this, and starts thinking.

I have only one option, but if I can pull it off, it’s all over and I win. I just hope Carvanha can make it happen. “Alright, Aqua Jet! Grab it out of the sky!” Carvanha blasts from the water like a torpedo, and grabs the Mothim mid-flight to the other side of the arena, taking the insect pokémon under the moat’s surface with a mighty splash, the only sounds being the terrified screech of Flutterby and the almighty splashing as he’s dragged under..

I look at Amy, occupied with looking at her pokémon’s misery. “You can concede now. Or Carvanha could start biting.”

I look over in time to see Carvanha get read to do just that, one of Mothim’s wings fully in its mouth. Amy recalls her pokémon just in time, and I breathe a sigh of relief. That pokémon is way too vicious. I was only meaning it as a threat, not like I’d actually make the order...

I recall the insane carnivore from the water and approach Amy. “Not bad, not bad at all. Your type choices were odd, but you made the most of them. Carvanha... doesn’t get much chance to battle really. I just only have the two.”

“These’re my only pokémon, too. Mr. fluffles was actually my older sis’s pokémon, but she only wanted him because she wanted another entered into her ‘have captured list. He’s such a sweetie, though!” Amy says, as we start walking towards the PokéCenter again. “I took him when he would’ve been just thrown into the wild.” She then hands me my reward money. Normally beating the cash out of a little girl would be kinda immoral, but I had to earn this!

“So you apparently saw a tutor a few times. Where would I go to see about that? Geodude could use a few moves added to his pool.”

“Oh, I had to go all the way to Mirar Town on the other side the Krosa forest. I was with a bunch of other trainers to get through the forest though; there’s this big, haunted mansion there, and all sorts of big, scary pokémon!” She stops for a moment, holding her arms out to indicate their size. “I want a couple.”

“Just remember, it’s the little ones that can sneak up on you that are the best.” I grin. “It’s all about unpredictability. Hard to hit something small and fast.”

“Yeah... I still want a Tyranitar, though. Big, heavy, and you can sleep on their shoulders!” She stops again. “Well, you’d need a hammock. But I’ve got a hammock! They’re better than sleeping bags.” Oh yeah, I need to get one of those.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around. I’m gonna go get my friends. I wanna try for my first badge too.”

“Good luck! Oh, what’s your éTech number?” I look mine up, and take hers down, and we part on good terms. She seems like she’ll go far.

I make my way back to my room and I see Twilight reading another magazine about technology, and Rarity is awake, but still a pony.

“Oh, hello Anthony! Say, could you be a dear and show me to the bathroom? I need to see about taking a shower and such, but I don’t know where the one for this suite is.”

“Heh, suite? These are just rooms for trainers. The Center isn’t a hotel, there’s probably a public bathroom though. They might have showers, but I can’t be certain. Come on, we can ask where they are.”