Hi, I'm Lighting Heart, a pegasus from Flutterington in the Fiore Region. I'm 15, but don't have my cutie mark. I don't mind, after all, my dream is to be a Pokemon Ranger.
I flew past some Starly, Staravia and Staraptor.
"Evening." I waved to them. They cried in reply. I smiled. I had always had a strong bond with Pokemon. My dream was to be the first Pegasus to go to the ranger school. See, most... now when I say most, I mean almost all, anyway, most Pegasi go to the ranger flight academy. There, they learn to raise and help flying pokemon. Not me, sometimes I love being grounded, there are so many more pokemon on ground. I landed on a cloud with a building made from the cloud. I closed my wings and trotted in. "Hiya everypony!" I greeted my family. My mother was cooking, my dad reading the Fiore times and my little sister, Silver wing, bouncing around, there was a letter in her mouth. as soon as she saw me she fluttered over holding the letter out. I took it in my hoof and ripped it open. I took out at letter.
"What does it say?" Dad asked
"Dear Lighting Heart...It will be a complete honour to have you as our first Pegasi student!" I squeale excitedly "I got in!" I cheered
"Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!" Silver jumped around me. I giggled, I quickly flew up stairs, grabbed the bag I had packed in case I got in, before heading down again.
"Then I had better go, I have a bit of a fly ahead of me." I said
"Be careful sweetie." my mom kissed me.
"I will. See ya when I graduate!" I smiled, I ran out side, raising my wings, I took off. To reach the Ranger School in Almia meant I had to pass the Ranger flight Academy. Everypony attending the Flight academy was out, a lesson on night flying Pokémon.
"Hey look!" somepony yelled " The blank flank is running away!" the others laughed and jeered.
"Whatever, I'm on my way to a new school. " I said, stopping by the gates. The teachers had been laughing, they suddenly stopped at that.
"Yeah, what school would have you?" One asked
"The Ranger School, and I don't wanna be late!" I stuck out my tongue, and flew off.
Soon enough, I saw the school. There were ponies outside, I landed outside the gates, not sure what to do. Then a Stallion with a green jacket and hat trotted over.
"Hello there." He smiled
"Hi, I'm Lighting Heart!" I said nervously. The Stallion's smile brightened.
"So, you're Lighting Heart. Come in and follow me." I did. The students watched me, most were unicorns, there were a fair few Earth ponies too.I was shown to a smaller building. "You'll need this!" A Styler floated in front of me. The reason no earth or pegasi ponies became rangers ...we didn't have magic. I looked at it sadly, the solution I had wouldn't work. "Ah...well..." I went for it away - I took the Styler in my mouth. The teacher looked at me. "Well, it works!" He smiled "Now, capture that Pikachu!"
"Pika... CHU!" The Pikachu attacked, I took off, hoovering above. I activated the Styler and began my first capture. I brought the styler down, then across to the left, the back down to the right. The silvery blue line entered the Pikachu, making my capture a success. The Pikachu went over to the teacher.
"Hehe...My name, it is Kaplan. You are now a member of our secret army, the inscrutable team School. As proof of your member ship, you are conferred the school styler." I glanced down at the styler, was this guy serious..."Together, we shall rule the world..."
"Oh, please, Mr. Kaplan." A light chestnut mare with a hazel mane trotted in and stood next to me. "Please don't tease my student with a silly performance like 's the second time today..." I smiled, she was my teacher? She seemed very nice. And, I am not the only new student..?
"Ahahahahah, Sorry, sorry. The timing was just too perfect to miss." Mr. Kaplan laughed. "Ahem. Congratulations. You have passed the Ranger school's entrance exam with flying colours. That really was quite an impressive capture."
"Congratulations! You've been accepted. Starting today, you are officially a student of the ranger school." My teacher smiled. "I'm Ms. April. I'm your classes teacher. I'm pleased to meet you. Your classmates are waiting for you. I'll show you to our class." began leading me away.
"Enjoy your school life!" Mr. Kaplan smiled.
"Ms. April, who is the other new student?" I asked as we trotted across the grounds.
"Another Pegasus like you. I believe his name is Lighting Shield." Ms. April said, I couldn't wait to meet him.
I followed her to my class, I waited at the back as she went to speak to the class. I was so nervous.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, class. And good morning everypony." Ms. April smiled
"Good morning." My class mates coursed.
"As I mentioned yesterday and to you earlier today, Shield, We have amother new member for our class." The whole class began muttering excitedly.
"Is it a guy?Or a girl?" A brown maned stallion asked "Which is it?"
"Is the new student cute? Cool? Or look like a celebrity?" A girl questioned. I was feeling even more nervous, what if they didn't like what I looked like? I began feeling sick.
"Okay, that's enough!" Ms. April saw the look on my face, I smiled thankfully. "You can see for yourselves." Here's our latest classmate. Come on up." The whole class turned as I walked forward, I joined Ms. April "Our new friend came alone to our Almia region to become a pokemon ranger, Oh yes." Ms. April turned to me. "You should introduce yourself to our class rather then me." I nodded, I looked at my class.
"Hi, I'm Lighting Heart, I hope we can all be friends." I smiled, A blonde earth pony made smiled happily nodding.
"Let's make Lighting Heart feel welcome." Ms. April said "I understand that she scored quite well on our entrance exam...What is it Keith? Why the big grin?" A red maned unicorn stallion was grinning, the other pegasus was on his right. I had a feeling that me and the unicorn would be great friends, he looked competitive. "Anyway, we had better get you seated somewhere Heart...You can have the seat next to Keith." I took the seat on Keith's left, he watched until I sat down, then looked back at Ms. April. "Okay, that's it for treating you like a new transfer student. From now on, you're all my students, ponies whom I can take pride in teaching. Let's do it everypony...Let's not fail your dreams of becoming Rangers, operators and Mechanics!"
"Yeah!" The class cheered, I could feel the positive energy! Smiling I knew I was going to love it here!
"Okay, I'll change the class schedule specially for today." Ms. April smiled. "It will be a self study day." Ms. April came over to me. "But before I go Heart, I need to explain something to you." Ms. April showed me the different functions on my styler. Keith yawned a lot, I guess he already knew, by oh well! turned to the blonde earth pony who smiled at me. "Rhythmic, Can I get you to show Heart around the school please?"
"I sure will!" Rhythmic smiled cheerfully.
"I'll be in the staff room." Ms. April smiled "I'll leave you to it." And she left the class, suddenly the class surrounded me, there were only six, including Rythmi and Keith.
"Hi Heart, I'm Glitter Star." The made who asked if I was cute or cool smiled
"I'm Sliver Spanner." The only other stallion, other then Keith and Shield.
"Roselin Bud." The last mare said
"Hey, new kid. I forgot your name, but how long did it take for you to capture the pikachu?" Keith said, I turned to him " Like an hour?"
"Why? Is that how long you took?" I replied, the class giggled, Keith looked almost impressed
"I'm Lighting Shield." Shield smiled, he had the same colowe mane as me, but was a light blue, the same tone as my purple coat. "Hope we can be friends."
"Totally!" I nodded
"Keith's just a show off." Rythmi said, I looked at her. "You're better off ignoring him. Instead, you should be paying attention to me." She smiled. "I'm not here to become a Ranger. I want to become an Operator instead. So, when Keith becomes a ranger, I can order him around like my servant." She giggled. "Just joking!" I chuckled "All right, let me take you on a tour of the ranger school! Let's begin in our own class room."
"Okay." I nodded
"You've already met our teacher, Ms. April. She's really nice, but if you make her mad...look out." Rythmi warned "There's another class next to ours. The teacher is Mr. Kincaid. He's very up tight and strict 'No running in the hallway' is lime his pet saying."
"Okay..." I made mental note to watch out for Mr. Kancaid
"Okay, let's move on. we'll explore the school building." Rythmi led me out of the class, down the hall and up stairs. I ended up flying up as it was easier. "Our dorms are here on the second floor. This is where we all bunk down, coed style, not in the same bedroom, of course. The boy is on the left, ours are on the right." Rythmi explained, "Manic, the lady there." She pointed her hoof at a Made who wore an apron, her cutie mark was a pokemon egg and a bottle. she had a motherly ora. "She's the caretaker. She's like a mom to us all." Rythmi turned to a machine. "That's a rechange machine. It's for recharging your styler to full. We headed downstairs and went into the room on our right. "This is the library, also known as Keith's nap room." I giggled, Rythmi smiled, she pointed towards a boy at the back. "That bkoy in the back wit a hair cut like a mushroom is Isaac. He's awesomely smart. You can usually find him right here in there library. Sometimes, he goes off somewhere though...Let's move to the next room." We left the library and went to the room on the other side of the stairs. "The staff room." Rythmi said
"Cool..." I muttered, I hooves next to Rythmi, my wings not making a sound. Ms. April was drinking tea.
"Usually, only our Principal is here. Our principal is Mr. Lamont. His eyes are always twinkling behind his glasses. I like him pretty well." Mr. Lament noticed us and waved a hoof. Rythmi and I waved back. "We have one last room."
"Mr. Kincaid's class room, right?" I asked, Rythmi nodded, she led the way, as soon as we entered, Mr. Kincaid looked at us, I landed lightly, looking down.
"Sorry to disturb you." Rythmi said "I'm taking our new class mate on a tour of the school."
"Jeez..." I whispered, the teacher seemed to be in bad moof.
"That's Mr. Kincaid, he gets his mane to go that way with a ton of mane spray. He's a little too uptight I think. I'm not a big fan." Rythmi whispered, we left the class. A bell rang causing me to jump. "There goes the bell. We can go outside now!" We both raced outside, I took to the air again. The cool sea breeze hit me, taking a deep breath, I smiled happily.
"It's beautiful out here." I sighed. There were a few pokemon here and any there, they seemed happy too.
"That small building is the training room. That's where Mr. Kaplan will teach you about performing captures. Ms. Clair is also there, she teaches about clearing targets. We practice that over there." Rythmi pointed to a field. "That reminds me...Do you know about clearing targets?" I gave her a confused look. "Your expression tells me you don't know. Well, that,s all right. That's why we have a training room!" Rythmi smiled, we headed to the building.
" and Ms. Clair! Can you give us a special lesson please?" Rythmi asked as we entered the training room. We approached two teachers, one I knew.
"Hehehe...Welcome to the inscrutable team school's secret hideout." Mr. Kaplan said, a female teacher sighed.
"Yes, yes, we've heard that before. Let's pay no attention to and his make-believe conspiracy."
"Oh! Please don't ignore me. I'll be serious and introduce myself. Um...My name's Mr. Kaplan, I teach the fundamentals of capture."
"And I'm Ms. Clair. Glad to meet you. It's my job to teach you about performing target clears."
"I know you had to do a capture for the entrance exam, but... I think you should learn about capturing properly once more." Rythmi shyly suggested.
"You're right, I need to learn all I can to be a good Ranger." I nodded, Rythmi watched as I did my two special lessons. Once they were over, we left talking about the lessons, Rythmi was giving me extra tips. She would make a great Operator.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear..." A voice gasped "Help, Somepony! Anypony, catch the Bidoof for me." Rythmi and I gasped, Bidoof were running all over the place.
"J-Janice?" Rythmi gasped "She's having trouble with the Bidoof." She turned to me "Please Heart! Capture the Bidoof and get them to settle down!"
"Right!" I nodded, I was about to take off.
"Ha, I was wondering what the Ruckus was all about. Lbooks like a good time that's up for grabs." I saw Keity by the doors. Shield was behind him, he watched the Bidoof running around.
"Keith, don't just stand there!" Rythmi said " You help with captures too."
"It won't be much fun is I just help." Keith muttered, he looked straight at me. "Hey, newkid, I challenge you!"
"Oh boy..." I took hold of my styler in my mouth and got ready for captures.
"We'll have a capture race, you and me. We'll see who can capture the most Bidoof, all right?" Keith grinned
"Can't you make the effort to learn our classmates name?" Rythmi asked "You can be so annoying Keith. Go ahead and have your silly race, or whatever, but hurry up!" Rythmi looked at me, I shrugged and glared at Keith, How annoying...
"Okay, let's get on with it! Three! Two! One! Start!" Keith said, I went after the closest Bidoof, My main mission, help Janice, who cared if I lost. My first capture was a Bidoof Duo. My first group capture! I captured two more Bidoof, the last. I took them back to Janice.
"Good work!" Rythmi smiled as I put my Styler away.
"Rangers help Ponies, it's my duty." I chuckled, Keith had five Bidoof. He may have captured more, but at least I acted like a Ranger.
"Impressive." Shield agreed with Rythmi
"I captured five." Keith smiled " That means you captured...um...four...that means...victory is mine."
"I didn't really want to race anyway..." I mumbled
"Keith looked good at it too." Janice smiled. " Of course, I need to thank our new friend and Rythmi, too. Thank you for this. This is a big relief for me." Janice said "And to the leader of the Bidoof. I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to tread on your tail. I'll make it up to you with tastier treats than usual. Come along everyone." Janice led the Bidoof away. I stretched my wings, that was a good days work. I couldn't wait to write to Silver Wing!
"I rate your captures 65 out of 100." Keith said "...Hey, but you know... I'll be honest. I was surprised by how you did. You might be decent for some pony who just found out about this."
"Thanks Keith." I smiled, taking it as a good thing.
"You said your name was Lighting Heart, right?" Keith asked, I just blinked, too surprised to answer.
"Oh, you, Keith. You knew our friends name all along!" Rythmi said " For goodness sake...Oh, that's right! There's somewhere I haven't shown you yet!"
"What? You mean Ascension square." Keith asked
"Yes." Rythmi nodded
"Then I'll go too." Keith said
"And me." Shield added
"Oh, all right. I guess we'll let you come with us." Rythmi said, she looked at me "Come on Heart." they led me to the eastern side of the school yard, and down some stairs to a place with a statue. "This is Ascension square, next month, there's going to be a special class here. It's the outdoor class" Rythmi said "That statue there is called the pledge stone."
"Wow..." I smiled, we went over to it.
"If you make a firm pledge to each other with your friends here, it will surely come true. That's what the Principle told me. And there you have it. That concludes Rythmi's school tour of wonder and excitement." Rythmi smiled at me. "Heart! I'm glad to have met you! I hope we can be friends for a long time."
"Hey, hold it now!" Keith butted in, he looked at me sternly. "Don't worry about Rythmi! Be friends with me, Okay!" Suddenly the bell rang.
"Oh, there goes the bell, we'd better get back to class." Rythmi said "Buy, boy oh boy, Keith, aren't you a slick one!"
"I have a better idea." I flew above them, next to Shield "Let's all be friends!" we all laughed and headed back to class.
That night
I was busy finishing a letter to Silver Wing and my parents, I told them all about my new friends, most Shield, how we shared a likeness, not just in looks but in name too. Once it was down, I put it down and flew over to Rythmi.
"Heart, do you write letters?" Rythmi asked
"Just finished one to my little sister." I smiled
"I'm thinking about writing to my parents about you Heart!" Rythmi smiled back
"I told my sister about you, Keith and Shield." I said "She'll loved to know I've made friends already."
"I hope she replies." Rythmi said "...Say...let's sneak out for a while. Rythmi and I headed out of the dorm. Rythmi trotting carefully, me flying behind on silent wings. Our class mates seemed to be waiting, we joined them. "Thanks for waiting." Rythmi smiled
"Yeah, kept us waiting Rythmi." Keith sighed, I hooves next to Shield, he looked just as confused as I was.
"Okay, let's get started with our test of courage to welcome Heart and Shield!" Rythmi said, I looked at her aand Keith.
"Keep it down, but yay!" The others whispered a cheer.
"What?" I asked
"We just want you to prove you're brave. I hade to do it before too. It's no big deal." Keith said "But, you know, you do have that easily spooked look to you. No offence."
"The rule are simple. The 4 of us have hidden our stylers in 4 different places in the school. They are : Ms. April's classroom, Mr. Kincaid's Classroom, The staffroom and the Library." Rythmi explained "Gather all 4 stylers, then put them in front of the door in the basement room. Its not hard or anything, but it's also not safe to go alone."
"I see..." I said, Shield glance at me
"That's why we've always had this one rule. The student seated next to the initiate has to do too." Shield and I looked down at Keith.
"Gweh! You mean me!" Keith sighed.
"Okay, you three. Off you go." Rythmi smiled. We headed downstairs, Shield and I decided to fly through this test, it would be easier.
"WAAAAAAAAAH!" Keith cried, I glared at him, Shield just looked utterly confused. "Wah... th-there's something there!" I looked forward
"It's only a Bidoof Keith." I smiled
"Oh, yeah...It startled me, that's all..." Keit looked away, I giggled to myself as we headed to Ms. April's classroom first. "But wow, that sire spooked me. You...you two were spooked too, right?" Keith asked on the way.
"I guess." Shield said
"Not really." I told them. "My dad owns a farm, I'm use to seeing pokemon in the dark... all flying type s though." I capture the Bidoof, so it wouldn't sppok poor Keith again. It was a good thing too, there were boxes blocking the walkway between chairs.
"Even our own classroom's kind of creepy at night." Keith muttered "Hey, I'll give you a hint even, what wasn't here during the day? That's what it is."
"5 big boxes, that's what..." Shield sighed, I was thoughtful. Knowing Rythmi, she would not make it easy... I guess the Styler was in the box by the desk. I cleared one box with Bidoof, before having to go and re capture it for another target cLear. Once the box by 's desk was cleared, I found a styled, I picked it up, one down, three to go. Mr. Kincaid's class next. "Come on guys!" I flew ahead, the boy's close behind.
"I'll do this one." Shield said, Keith and I stood back as Shield approached the Styler, which had been left on the side. He had to capture a zubat to get it, I was impressed, I zubat could be pretty nasty.
"Two more, the Library next." I smiled, Shield captured the Bidoof in the hall, sure enough there were boxes in the Library blocking the way, luckily there was another Bidoof in the room. Shield decided to do this one. we then made our way to the staff room. Nothing was in this room, apart from a Pichu.
"This is the Staff room...the hint for this room is... The styler we hid doesn't stay stil. You understand, don't you?" Keith looked at my face.
"The Pichu has it." I sighed, I had to chase the Pichu before I got a chance to capture it and get the styler. I glared at Keith as I picked up the final styler. "Ibet it was your idea." Keith said nothing, but grinned. "Anyway, this is the last one."
"Good, good, that's all of them, then." he sighed "Let's take them down to the basement ." The three of us head down. Shield had to use Zubat to clear a target, I had to use a Bidoof to clear another. "Hey...Heart, Shield...have you been hearing anything? Like weird noises?" Keith asked
"No." Shield shook his head
"I think so, but it is probably a Pokémon." I said, we reached the door.
"Plunk down those stylers here, then we can go back to the dorms, and we're done." Keith said "But hustle will you? I can't take much more of this..." He stopped "Ssssh... I do hear something funny." Suddenly 4 Gastly appeared. "BWAAAAAA!" Kwith yelled, I got out my styler and tried a group capture.
I capture 3 together and one alone. I sighed, that was hard.
"Oh, it was just Gastly..." Keith began
"WHO'S THERE?!" Mr. Kincaid came out of the room startling all of us. "The bse Kent is off limits to everypony but myself!"
"Awww, shoot! Run for it!" Keith said, we took off back to the dorms, Shield and I still holding 2 stylers each.
"You're back!...Why do you still have the stylers?" Rythmi asked, We looked at the stylers and began laughing.
"Long story." Shield and I gave back the stylers.
"But, let's say Mr. Kincaid won't be too happy with us in the morning..." I chuckled "We should get to bed." The others agreed.