It had been some time since Spike had last hung out with the Training Dragon club. For one thing, with the World Summit and the wedding he had been busy, and he was still a little worried that they would try to get him to fight again.
So he was slightly nervous as he walked into the clearing Fluttershy told him they were training in.
“Spike!” He wasn’t expecting to get tackled to the ground by Gible. “Fluttershy said you were back, but we hadn’t seen you!”
Spike pushed Gible off of him and looked around the clearing. Bagon, Dratini, and Axew were all making their way over. From the look of things, Bagon and Dratini had been battling before Spike had shown up.
“Good to see you again Spike!” Bagon said with a grin, walking up to Spike and slapping him on the back. “And sorry about what happened last time.”
“It’s alright,” he said with a shrug, rubbing his shoulder. “And sorry for, you know, running off and having Blaziken scare you.”
“Pff, we weren’t scared,” Bagon said, waving off the accusation. “The Training Dragon Club is never scared!”
“Really? Cause when he showed up you-”
Bagon grabbed Spike’s face and looked him right in the eyes. “Never. Scared.” Bagon held Spike for a few seconds to get the point across, the let him ago. “So Spike, what brings you by?” He smiled. “You finally decide you wanna battle?”
Spike shook his head. “No, I just really needed to get out of the house, Twilight’s been testing a bunch of different Stones in the basement and I had enough once she smashed a Water Stone and caused a flood.”
“Who in their right mind would smash a Water Stone?” Dratini asked, concerned.
“I’ve been asking myself that question all day,” Spike said with a sigh.
The Dragon types all laughed. “Well Spike,” Axew began. “You’re welcome to hang out with us for however long you want.”
“Yeah, we were just about done with battling anyway,” Dratini said with a smile.
“You guys don’t have to stop on my account,” Spike said. “Really.”
“In that case, Axew! Come on! You’re fighting me next!” Bagon ran ahead and stood waiting for Axew to face him.
Axew smiled and went after him, while Spike, Dratini and Gible sat down to watch. “So... why do you guys fight each other so much anyway?” Spike asked.
“So we can Evolve,” Gible stated.
“Okay, but why do you want to Evolve so badly?”
Gible and Dratini stared at him in disbelief. “Why wouldn’t we?!” Gible exclaimed. “It’s our right of passage, a significance of our power! Our growth! Plus...” she grinned widely, which kinda disturbed Spike. “I’m gonna look so much more awesome as a Garchomp!”
Dratini nodded. “She’s right... well on her first few points anyway... and yeah, we do kinda get cooler when we Evolve.”
“So... it’s like growing up?” Spike asked.
“It’s not like growing up,” Gible said. “It is growing up... for Pokémon at least.”
“It’s just how we grow,” Dratini said, moving her body in what Spike assumed was a serpentine shrug. “Unlike humans... and ponies, I guess, Pokémon enter different stages of their life through Evolution.”
“So what?” Spike asked, trying to clarify some things. “You can’t become adults until you Evolve? Or you actually don’t physically age until you Evolve?”
Gible laughed. “The first, we still age, but we’re gonna be treated like kids unless we Evolve.”
“Oooh, alright,” Spike said with a nod.
“You seriously thought we might not age?” Dratini asked, stifling a laugh.
“Hey, I know next to nothing about Pokémon biology,” Spike defended.
Gible and Dratini laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Axew asked, popping up in front of them. “Oh no! Did I miss a joke?”
“No,” Dratini said, rolling her eyes. “We were just talking with Spike.”
“Talking,” Bagon, bruised and tired, said before lying down next to them. “That sounds good, as long as it’s quiet.”
Gible chuckled. “Nice work Axew.”
“Aw, go on,” he looked at her expectantly. “No... seriously... I totally deserve to be praised.”
Gible rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah,” she pulled him to the ground. “Sit down ya glory hog.”
Spike laughed. “Hey, I wanted to ask how you guys knew each other back on Earth? I mean I’m assuming you did, and you said something about a Dragon’s Den when we first met.”
Bagon smiled. “That Spike, is a grand tale of adventure, action, and-”
“The Dragon’s Den was the base of operations for the Dragon Trainer’s society,” Dratini said with a smile. “It was where the Masters met and the Trainees trained and the initiates got their Pokémon, which is what we were for.”
“Dratini,” Bagon whined. “You interrupted my monologue,” he crossed his arms. “I’ve been working on our group monologue for weeks.”
Dratini giggled. “Sorry Bagon.”
He sighed. “It’s okay,” his frown turned into a smile. “So yeah, we lived in the Dragon’s Den, where the Trainee’s took care of us and we trained until we were old enough to get a Trainer and go on an adventure.”
“What’s with all the adventures?” Spike asked. “I mean you guys, Gene, is it like a tradition or something?”
“It is!” Axew said. “Once they reach the age of ten, or like sixteen in some Regions I think, a human gets their first Pokémon and they can go on their Journey!”
“I heard from one of the older Dragonairs that it helps the human find what they want to do with their life,” Dratini said. “Like be a police officer, or try for the Champion position or Elite Four or something like that.”
Spike stared at her in disbelief. “They let ten year olds have creatures that could probably level a building and then let them go explore the world unsupervised?”
Bagon closed his eyes and stroked his chin. “Yep,” he opened his eyes and smiled. “That sounds about right, why’d you ask?”
Spike was about to say how insane that was, but he just stared at them, wondering how they couldn’t see it. “Just forget it,” he said, laying back in the grass, trying to keep his mind off of how positively INSANE Earth was.
“Okay,” Axew said. “Well Spike, since you asked us, where do you come from? Aside from living in a Treebary.”
“I knew people called it that!” Spike gloated. “Twilight owes me five bits.” The Dragons all laughed. “Well,” Spike began. “I was hatched in Canterlot, that’s the big city over there,” he pointed to the silhouette of Canterlot up on the mountain. “Twilight hatched me, so once I was old enough, the Princess gave me to her as her personal assistant.”
“Like how we were going to be given to Trainers as their Pokémon?” Bagon asked.
Spike was about to protest, then realized that it was kinda similar. “Well... it’s more of a partnership.” Spike nodded, glad he had closed that subject.
“Um...that’s what the first Pokémon a Trainer gets is called,” Dratini said, looking worriedly at Spike. “A Partner Pokémon.”
Spike’s eyes widened and he sat up. “W-well I’m her number one assistant,” he said, nodding again.
“A Partner Pokémon is usually a trainers go to Pokémon,” Bagon said. “Not always, but usually.”
“Well... it’s not like she has me attack others and traps them in balls!” Spike shouted frantically. “I mean, yeah she orders me around sometimes, and sometimes I do get hurt, but it’s not like that.”
Gible raised an eyebrow was about to say it certainly seemed like that, but Bagon pinched her mouth shut. “I think Spike is having an existential crisis... we should, you know, be supportive, not prod him about it.”
Gible blinked, then nodded. “Don’t worry Spike,” she said, breaking away from Bagon. “I’m sure Twilight doesn’t see you like that.”
“R-right,” Spike said, nodding. “I’m her friend first, her assistant second.”
“That’s how-” Axew was cut off as Bagon put a claw over his mouth.
“So Spike,” Bagon said. “Why don’t you tell us about Ponyville? Maybe show us around a bit?”
“Well, I guess I can, if you guys want to.”
The Training Dragon Club nodded.
“Alright,” Spike said with a smile. “Follow me then.”
As Spike led the Dragon types into town, he found that he couldn’t stop smiling. You know, I think I actually like hanging out with these guys, he thought to himself. At least more so than I did the Crusaders that one time, Spike shuddered. Never again.
Iris sighed as she looked down at the boulder in front of her. Yesterday, after Twilight and the others got back to Ponyville, they had told her about what had happened, and she was slightly surprised to hear that Ash was here (that he was this close to Ponyville, not that he was in Equus, since she honestly couldn’t think of anyone more worthy of being brought here). So with that in mind, she was on her way to see her old friend, but had stopped to practice a bit with her blades. So far the results had been... less than satisfying. “I know they’re supposed to be cleaner than this,” she said, shaking her head and putting a claw on her hip as she stared down at the boulder she had cut in two. “I’ve seen it, but what the heck am I doing wrong?”
Iris sighed and was going to head off, get back to her problem later, when she heard a loud roar from behind her. She whirled around, her eyes widening as another Haxorus ran straight at her.
Crap! Iris thought, she knew how territorial some Dragons could get, and this one was male, which didn’t make things any better.
However, Iris’ concerns proved invalid as the Haxorus ran past her avoiding her tail as he leapt over it and came down, axehead slashing straight through the center of the boulder. The boulder, cut cleanly in two, fell apart.
“And that is the proper form for boulder slicing,” the Haxorus said with a grin.
Iris stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. “What the heck?” she asked. “I thought you were going to attack me.”
“Without first challenging you?” The Haxorus asked with a shake of his head. “No, I was simply showing you how to execute a proper cut, you must put your heart into it! Scream and roar out in passion as you split your foe! Laugh as their dusty blood falls across your face! Stomp as their pathetic stone corpse falls to the side, defeated and worthless to you.”
Iris flinched backwards. “Sheesh that’s gruesome,” she said, shaking her head. “And I raised a Hydreigon.” That actually meant nothing, Iris’ Hydreigon was a rather nice ‘mon.
“I decapitated all three heads of one once,” He replied with a smile. “That was a good battle, wonderful revenge for Abby’s family.”
Iris rubbed her neck. “Uh huh,” She shook her head. “Who are you?”
“My name is Axle, my trainer’s name is Abby Trombley if that means anything to you,” Axle stated with a shrug.
Iris rubbed her chin, wondering where she had heard that name, then snapped her claws as she remembered. “Cynthia told me about her, said she was a Ranger who helped out Gene and Belle.”
“Yes, that’s Abby,” Axle agreed, nodding his axehead. “And what I said was true about your cuts, they’re sloppy because you’re not putting your heart into them. Feel the bloodrage.”
Iris rolled her eyes, that sounded like something she would hear from a rampaging Dragon back on Earth... well, she assumed it was, if she had understood them. “Yeah, well, I’m new to this, usually I’m the one giving the order to attack, not dishing them out,” she shook her head again. “I’m Iris by the way.”
“The Champion?” Axle inquired with a frown.
“Champion, Dragonmaster, yep, that’s me.” She looked down at her claws and squinted. “I’m a Shiny Haxorus now.”
“And that is an excuse for bad form?” Axle asked before shaking his head. “Of course it isn’t! As a Haxorus fighting is everything! You must feel your blood pumping through your head, savor the feeling of adrenaline rushing through your body, anticipate the victory that you, and only YOU can gain over your opponents!”
Iris blinked twice. “Wow,” she said in shock. “You are literally nothing like my Haxorus, and I mean at all. I shouldn’t be surprised, Shauntal has a Cofagrigus that plays chess, but really.”
“It comes from being originally raised in captivity for use as an arena fighter where we killed our opponents and ate them if we expected to eat at all,” Axle apparently missed Iris’ jaw dropping. “But that still does not excuse your poor form! You are a Haxorus now Iris! You must uphold our standard and at the moment, I have seen Axew with more blood than you!”
Iris did her best to ignore that first part and formed a response. “Yeah well, I guess Haxorus did usually roar before she attacked,” she shrugged. “So thanks for the advice, I guess.” She never really thought about why Pokémon always roared when they attacked before
“You are welcome!” Axle said with a grin before he gestured at the boulder, or at least a side of it that wa less sloppily cut to pieces. “Now attack! Put your heart into it so called Champion! Make this piece of stone rue the day that it met you as you carve it into little pebbles! Stomp it into the dust for every insulting cut you have given it! Grind its dust into grit and then wear it proudly upon your scales!”
Iris stared at Axle in disbelief, then at the boulder. “Ookay,” she was considering running, this guy was kinda freaking her out. Pretty sure this isn’t how they all talked... Belle translated a few times so I know it’s not how my team talked.
“With confidence! Feel the RAGE pumping through you!” Axle roared at her.
“I’m not really an angry person,” Iris said with a shrug.
“THEN YOU’RE NOT A HAXORUS!” Iris flinched back as Axle’s voice echoed through the clearing. “ARE YOU A DRATINI? CUT THE ROCK!”
“Okay! Okay!” Iris help up her arms. “Just don’t do that again.” Positioning herself in front of the boulder, Iris closed her eyes. She’d seen this kind of thing done a millions times before, she’d ordered it done a thousand times before.
She took a deep breath and, channeling all her energy into the chop, she yelled. “RAAHHHH!!” Cutting the boulder cleanly in two.
“HAHAHAHHA! YES! CAN YOU FEEL IT?!” Axle shouted to her, a giant grin on his face.
Iris admired her handiwork, the cut wasn’t exactly perfect, but it was much neater than her last few attempts. “Huh, would ya look at that,” she said with a smile. “Thanks for your help Axle.”
Axle grinned and walked up to her, slamming his hand against her back. “It was no trouble! You just have to find your inner dragon, Champion! Ride that dragon! Become that dragon! Overwhelm all who oppose you and grind their bones to dust beneath your rage!”
Iris raised an eyebrow. “Do you... do you always talk like that?” She asked, rubbing her back where he’d slapped her.
“No, sometimes I am asleep,” Axle replied, remembering a quip that Lex had stabbed him with.
“Right,” Iris said, rolling her eyes. “Well, anyway, I promised I’d go catch up with some friends later today so I’m just gonna go now.”
“Ah, alright, I shall fight you later then,” Axle said with a nod of his head. “Remember! Channel your fury and make it a blade that can crash through mountains!”
“Uh huh, I’ll do that... wait, did you say fight me?!” She asked, sounding slightly worried.
“Yes of course, why do you think I was here in the first place?” Axle inquired, tilting his head to the side. “I came here seeking a fight and thought there was a worthy opponent to be found here. Sadly, I was mistaken. At the moment, you are hardly worth my time as far as a fight goes. It is actually kind of sad, I was looking forwards to fighting another Haxorus.”
Iris grimaced at that, she wasn’t sure whether to be relieved, or offended, so she settled with disgruntled. “Well when I find mine, I’ll let you know. But I’m not letting you near my Hydreigon.”
“In my defense, it did eat Abby’s parents and was deserving of the tri-decapitation,” Axle defended himself, harrumphing once. “I don’t decapitate everyone I meet, only the bastards.”
Iris flinched again, then sighed. “Fine, I guess it did deserve that.” Pokémon like that were the reason a lot of people feared Dragons.
“It did,” Axle said with a nod of his head. “Now, didn’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Right,” Iris remembered. “Gotta go meet up with him, see you later, I guess.” Iris walked off, heading deeper into the forest to where Ash was supposedly staying. “That was... strange,” Iris said to herself. “He’s certainly... different... eh, I’ve dealt with worse Dragons,” Iris chuckled. “At least he’s not tearing down building or trying to eat people.”
Misty enjoyed that being able to spend time with Ash again, he was one of her best friends and she really wanted him to be more than that.
None of these points were supported when Misty plopped down behind a couple of trees to get away from him.
“Arceus I like him, but how can anyone be so dense?” Misty asked herself. No matter how much Misty flirted with Ash, not an easy thing to do in a body that was at least half fish, or tried to get him to talk about romance, he just didn’t seem to get it.
“Or he’s just ignoring me,” Misty said with a sigh. “Maybe he already found someone and doesn’t know how to break the news to me.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much,” a soft, feminine voice chimed in. Misty looked up to see a Meganium settle beside her. “Ashy... Ash has drawn several girls attention, but he’s never returned the feelings,” the Grass types antenna drooped. “Trust me.” She said with a soft sigh.
Misty blinked in confusion, then her eyes widened in realization. “Bayleef?”
The Meganium smiled softly at her. “No ones called me that in years,” she leaned down and nuzzled Misty softly. “It’s good to see you again Misty.”
Misty looked at Meganium in disbelief. “You too Bay... Meganium,” she said, shaking her head. “Um... how much of what I said did you hear?”
Meganium chuckled. “Enough to know somebody is crushing hard on my trainer~” she prodded Misty.
“Last I remember, so where you,” Misty said, rolling her eyes.
Meganium sighed again. “Yeah... I was.”
Misty raised an eyebrow. “Was?”
“It’s... it’s a long story, one you’ll probably understand,” Meganium began. “Back when you were with us and Ash first caught me... well he was nicer to me than anyone else had ever been before,” Misty sighed, growing up ‘the plain one’ with three absolutely gorgeous sisters had given her a good taste of that. “Which is why I... I...” it was Meganium’s turn to sigh. “Which was why I like him. And I realized Ash was kinda... really really dense. So I tried being painfully obvious in what I was trying to do.”
Misty chuckled, remembering all the times Bayleef had tackled Ash to the ground.
“But after he made it through the Jhoto Region...” Bayleef’s antenna dropped again. “H-he just... left me at the lab, and yeah all the other Pokémon were nice, and I got to see Tracey and Mr. Oak and Mrs. Ketchum but...” she sniffed. “I really wanted to see him.”
Misty frowned as she recognized Meganium’s words. “I know how you feel,” Misty often felt the same way about Ash.
Meganium nodded, then perked up slightly. “B-but I got to see him at the Sinnoh League! He had Mr. Oak send me and some of the others over... but he never used me,” Meganium sniffled again. “W-we trained a little, then he put me in my Pokeball, and the next time I came out, I was back at the lab after he lost.”
Misty frowned. “But what about after he became a Frontier Brain? He took you and all the others with him, even Squirtle and Charizard.”
Meganium sighed. “After the Sinnoh League... I did some thinking, a lot of thinking really, I guess after a while, a long while, I realized that... Ash wasn’t the kind of guy I really wanted,” she looked down at Misty and frantically added. “Don’t get me wrong, Ash is an amazing guy, he’s kind, and caring, and friendly... but I wanted someone who would be there for me and listen to what I had to say.”
“And Ash still needed to settle down,” Misty added.
Meganium nodded, then laughed. “I can’t even tell you how many Frontier Trainers he made wait because he was off on an adventure those first few months... well years really... he kept leaving the compound, whether it was a mission from Brandon or just something interesting he wanted to see.”
Misty laughed. “That certainly sounds like Ash.” She tilted her head and looked up at Meganium in curiousity. “But... did he change?”
Meganium sighed. “He slowed down, he never had a problem listening to us when it came to battles, or something we needed to show him, but when it came to our feelings...”
“He thought psychology was a Pokémon,” Misty remembered.
Meganium chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, it was different with Pikachu and sometimes he was spot on, and he did get better but,” Meganium hung her head. “I... I guess I grew out of it, I realized he would never return my feelings so I moved on.”She shrugged. “I didn’t want to get hurt anymore.”
“Oh,” Misty said in surprise, she had half expected to have to fight Meganium for Ash or something. “Well... good for you!... Who’s the lucky mon?”
Meganium laughed. “Move on as in ‘stop trying to get Ash’, I don’t have a mate or anything like that.”
“Oh,” Misty said again. “Sorry.”
“Meh, not your fault,” Meganium looked down at Misty for a moment, then lifted her up to eye level with her vines. “Anyway, I know you want Ash. Bad.”
Misty blushed.
“And I honestly think that you two would make a cute couple... if you can get him to understand what that means,” she added the last part under her breath. “And since I know you won’t just use him like some of those girls who showed up in the Frontier-”
“Meganium, did you scare off any girls who you didn’t think would be good for Ash?” Misty asked.
“Not important.... it was only the bad ones. And since I know you’re not like them, you have my blessing.” Meganium hugged Misty against her chest with her vines.
“Thanks,” Misty said, rolling her eyes. “I already got Delia’s approval, good to know the closest thing Ash has to an Ex approves to.”
“I’m going to ignore that snark, and instead offer some advice,” Meganium looked Misty dead in the eyes. “You. Have. To. Be. Dir-Ect. With. Him. Otherwise. You’ll. Get. Nowhere. Understand?”
Misty stared at Meganium for a moment, then sighed. “Yeah, I get it.”
“Good, then you won’t be mad at me for this next part.”
“What next-AHH!” Apparently the ‘next part’ involved flinging Misty back into the clearing. “WHHHYYY??!”
Misty landed with a thud, thankfully she landed on grass. Unfortunately, she ended up sitting on her tail. REALLY unfortunately, she landed directly in front of Ash.
“Oh hey Misty,” Ash said, seemingly unphased by the fact Misty had literally just fallen from the sky. “What’s up?”
Misty gulped. This was it. It was time. No more procrastinating. No more reason to hide. Time to put my soul on display, “Ash, I l-”
“ASHY!!”
Misty and Ash turned in time to see a red blur shoot towards them, Ash let out a quick scream as the red blur grabbed him and exited the clearing via tearing a hole through the canopy.
Misty, and anyone else nearby, stared in disbelief. “I... I... I... I... I...” Misty stammered.
“Hey Misty,” Iris waved as she walked into the clearing. “You know where Ash is? I wanted to say hi, see if I can give him a scare.”
“WAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!” Misty collapsed to the ground. “WHHHHHYYY!!???! WHY ARCEUS WHY!?!?”
Iris took a step back and looked around. “Was... was it something I said."