Equestria: A World We Must Defend

by LightOfTriumph


A Wild Magikarp Appeared!

Route 1 was longer than expected.

They had been wandering down the road for over three hours. The road was filled with tall grass and a few wild Pokemon. It took Crystal to point out that he should be catching a few. She led Ace to a stream and handed Ace a fishing rod and a few PokeBalls. "First things first," Crystal said firmly. "Water type."

"What?" Ace asked.

"If you're going to go through this region you're going to need Surf," Crystal explained. "One of the gyms can only be reached via the water. So you're going to need a Water Type to ferry you across."

Ace took the equipment and shrugged. "Alright," he said. "Fair enough."

He sat next to the stream, cast his line, and waited. After a few moments there was a sharp tug on the line. "Whoa!" Ace shouted. "Whatever it is, this thing is huge!"

"Well reel it in!" Crystal squeaked.

"That's your idea?" Ace asked as he struggled with the line. "I was just gonna let it eat the fishing pole... What does it look like I'm doing?!"

After several minutes of fighting with the line he finally managed to yank upwards hard enough to rip the leviathan he had struggled with from it's stream. It layed upon the beach, defeated. It's body fighting to get out of the bonds of the fishing line.

"Karp! Karp!" called the Pokemon. "Magi-Magikarp-karp! Kaaaaaaaarp!"

They both looked at the flopping red fish on the shore with blank expressions on their faces.

"Throw it back," said Crystal, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We can try again with different bait."

Ace examined the Pokemon carefully. It was a male, he could tell by the longer whiskers. The readout from the Pokedex told him it was around level 10, and already knew Tackle. Once it hit level 20 something amazing would happen. Wild Gyarados are hard to come by, but they're there. Most trainers who used Gyarados caught them wild, they didn't have the patience to complete the necessary training it would take to evolve it from a Magikarp...

Ace wasn't most trainers.

He stood up, took a Pokeball out of his bag, and dropped it on the splashing Magikarp. The ball opened and transferred the Pokemon into Data. The ball shook three times and then made a loud bing This indicated that the Pokemon was caught.

Ace had successfully captured a Magikarp.

"There!" Ace smiled. "I've got my Water type, let's move on."

Crystal's jaw was on the floor. "Why?" she asked stunned. "Why did you do that? Why did you catch a Magikarp?! Magikarp is the single most pathetic Pokemon known to man!"

"I think the Karp gets a bum rap," Ace said honestly. "If you put enough work into him, I'm sure Leviathan will be a great member of the team!"

"'Leviathan'?" Crystal asked. "You named it?"

"Of course I named him!" Ace said defensively. "He's a part of my PokeCrew and thus a member of my family. He has a right to a name just like Spark Plug or Teekay! You may not believe in Leviathan, but I do. One day I will put this Pokemon in the Hall of Fame!"

"You're going to evolve him," Crystle said dryly,

"Well of course I am," Ace said. "I'm not an idiot."

"Could've fooled me," Crystal sighed. "He's got ten levels before that happens, Ace. Do you really have the patience to-"

"Probably not," Ace smiled. "But it has always been my belief that no Pokemon is useless. Every Pokemon, no matter what the species, can be useful if if cared for correctly. I'm going to make an effort with this little guy. He's going to earn his name. Leviathan. God of the Sea! Come on out, buddy!" Ace struck a pose as he hurled out Leviathan's PokeBall.

"Karp!" called the mighty Leviathan, as he flopped uselessly on the ground. "Karp Karp Magikarp karp.... Kaaaaaaarrr..."

Ace held the pose in silence.

"Let's...," Crystal started. "Let's find a Pokemon who'll actually put up a fight so I can teach you how to catch Pokemon, okay?"

"Okay... Wait, what?" Ace asked plainly. "Teach me how to catch... Did you not just see me catch a Pokemon? I already know! Is your Useless Tutorial Disease acting up again? Do they make meds for this kind of thing?

"It's just...," Crystal said sadly. "I've been a Pokemon trainer for a month, and I was the newest trainer back home, and everyone wanted to teach me things, and I appreciated that but I wanted to teach other ponies that kind of stuff for a while, and then you got Spark Plug, and I thought that would be a good time to teach you things about Pokemon training, but you've been obsessed with Pokemon training since you were a colt, so you already knew everything, so I want to teach you stuff that you already know, but I just get overexcited..." She looked directly into Ace's eyes.

She was making what Ace would refer to as "Crystal Face". This entailed a widening of the already huge eyes, a quivering lower lip, and an unusually pathetic run on sentence. It was an obvious ploy to get her way that worked on Ace every time. "What should I catch next?" he sighed.

"Well!" Crystal beamed, switching immediately from adorable sadness to adorable happiness. "I would suggest getting a Flying type! That way if you get the urge to go home you can just ride in the sky on a great big bird! So majestic..."

"Alright," Ace frowned. "Let's see... What kind of bird Pokemon live he-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!"

As he was about to say the word "here," a brown and red bird Pokemon leaped from the grass with a cry of "Sprrrooooow!!" and started pecking at Ace's head like there was candy in his skull.

"Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!" Ace cried, running around frantically in circles. The Pokemon didn't budge an inch.

"There might be a few Spearow," Crystal said dryly.

"Thank you! For the news flash! Derpy Hooves!" Ace screamed. "Now get this freakin' thing off me!!"

"You wanna catch this thing don't you?" Crystal asked. "You have to use your own Pokemon!"

"Spark Plug is sleeping in my bag!" Ace screamed, the Spearow still pecking at his head. "Wake him up!!"

Crystal ran to the bag and woke up the sleeping Elekid. When they got back to the road they saw that little had changed about the situation. "Elekid?" Spark Plug asked.

"Long story!" Ace called. "Use Thunder Shock on this stupid bird! Get him off of my head!"

"Uh, Ace?" Crystal started. "That's not a good idea on a number of levels..."

Too late. Spark let the Electricity fly. The Spearow saw it coming and flew off his head, landing on the ground next to Spark Plug. This left Ace to take the full force of the Thunder Shock.

Ace took a long look at his Pokemon. "You missed."

"Elek...," Spark Plug giggled nervously. He was interrupted when Spearow pecked his arm hard. "Kid!"

"Be careful, man!" Ace said. "It's tougher than it looks! This thing is vicious!"

The Spearow obviously wasn't leaving. It flapped it's wings hard and puffed out it's chest. "Sproooow!!!"

Spark Plug squared off with the wild Pokemon. "Alright Crys...," Ace said. "What do we do next?"

"Well," Crystal beamed. "First you have to weaken it! Start off with heavy damage and then deal weaker attacks later."

"Okay!" Ace smiled. "Spark Plug! Thunder Shock! Let's stir fry this chicken!"

"Ellleeeekiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid!" Spark Plug shouted, tossing a full force Electric attack at the wild Spearow. It took the hit full force and fell over. It got up and tried to make it's move, but winced. Yellow sparks shot out from its body in a few locations.

"It's Paralyzed!" Crystal smiled. "That's going to help! Now's your chance. Hit it with a Quick Attack and lob that PokeBall!"

"You heard the lady!" Ace beamed. "Quick Attack!"

Spark Plug disappeared for a moment before showing up behind the Spearow and bringing both fists down on his head. "Sprooow...," the Pokemon said weakly.

Ace took out a PokeBall and lobbed it at the bird. The Spearow disappeared into the Ball, and the ball began to shake.

1...

2...

3...

Ding.

"Yes!" Ace shouted. "I caught him! I caught the vicious little bird!" Ace jumped up and down in excitement. "Three down, three to go!"

Crystal ran over and hugged Ace. "That was awesome!" she laughed. "Are you going to Nickname it?"

"Hmm...," Ace said, considering the question. "I've called it 'Vicious' twice now. I suppose that works. Come on out, Vicious! The newest member of the future Hall of Famers!" Ace struck a pose and let his new Spearow out of his Ball.

"Sproow!" called Vicious, seemingly excited to find a worthy trainer. He tried to stand proud but staggered a bit.

"Oh...," Ace said. "We should probably get this little guy to a Pokemon center and heal him up, huh?"


The two grunts waited in silence for they're new assignment. He was due to arrive soon. What was annoying Snips was that he wasn't an admin. A friend of the Boss had asked him to train up his son. Groom him for the EPL. Some spoiled rich kid was coming, and now they had to babysit him.

And he was late.

"Where the hoof is he!" Snips growled. "He's an hour late at this point! Why do we gotta look after this kid anyhow! He's just some little spoiled numbskull..."

"Nuh uh," said Snails indignantly. "They said that this guy was supposed to be the next Champion. That way we can get to the thing that Trixie and the Boss are looking for..."

"Right," Snips scoffed. "This kid is gonna be champion. Horse hockey. This kid probably doesn't even know how to battle. I ain't gonna teach him. This brat is gonna learn the hard way that life don't come on a-"

"Kingler," came a voice from the forest. "Vicegrip."

The huge Crab Pokemon leaped from the shadows and wrapped its huge claw around Snips's throat.

The young colt stepped out from the shadows. He didn't look spoiled. He looked like he had seen a few things. He was jet black. He had a scraggly white mane. His cutie mark was a spade with a J cut out of it. What struck Snails however, was his eyes. One was brown, the other was bright green. In the green eye, instead of a Pupil was a long slit.

"Oh, please continue," he said to the choking Snips in a cold, unfeeling voice. "Really, please. Go on. I'm useless. Just spoiled. Nothing remarkable about me. rust fund babies like me are a dime a dozen. I simply don't have the skill to be the Champion. I don't have that killer instinct... What's wrong? Why aren't you saying anything... Is there something in your throat?"

"Aahhhhhhkkkk!!" Snips wheezed out.

"Oh!" the mysterious Colt smacked his head. "I get what the problem is now. Alright, drop him Kingler."

Kingler dropped the Grunt on the command.

Snips collapsed to the ground and rose slowly, clutching his neck. "Who...," he coughed. "Who are you?"

"My name's Blackjack," the colt smiled. "And watch what you say from now on...

"It's better to be my friend than my Rival."