//------------------------------//
// 15: Destined Battle 
// Story: A New World, A New Family 
// by Lance Skyes 
//------------------------------//

	On a beach in far southern Equestria, an Empoleon was lying comfortably in the sand, not asleep but simply relaxing. At least, she seemed this way until she noticed a shadow fall over her face. The Empoleon scrunched her face into a scowl before opening her eyes to observe her new companion. “Who are you?” she asked angrily.
“Salutations, madame,” the intruder said in a haughty voice. “I am Knight Lancer, designated guardian of the trainer Alonzo Halgamlith.”
”Arceus help me,” the Empoleon thought to herself as she sat up to get a better look at the speaker. As per her expectations, the Pokemon before her was an Escavalier, and he seemed rather serious about something. “Um… hello, knight. I am Princess, designated… 'ruler' of the trainer Marcus Lyre.”
“It is a pleasure to meet such a highly-ranked member of nobility,” Lancer said with a bow. “Forgive me for my rudeness, Your Highness, but there is something of great importance that I must request of you.”
“Rise, knight,” the Empoleon said. “And you may address me as Princess if you so choose.”
“As you request, Your Highness,” Lancer replied. Princess rolled her eyes at this. “If I may resume, there is something very serious that will occur in a matter of days, and I must ask for your help with finding and eliminating the threat before my trainer.”
“You want my help?” Princess asked. ”Hm… this guy seems pretty desperate,” she thought to herself. ”I wonder just how desperate…” Princess smirked below Lancer's perception. “You, noble knight, request of me, a member of the nobility, assistance in a quest?”
“Yes, I do,” Lancer replied. “Will you accept my request, madame?”
“Hmm…” Princess said while bringing her flipper to her chin and examining Lancer. “You seem like a competent enough knight. If I were to join you, would you be able to protect me whenever we find ourselves in danger?”
“I would put my own life before yours,” Lancer replied. “You are very important to this quest, and I'd gladly relinquish my own well being in order to defend yours.”
”Well, this guy seems determined enough,” Princess thought to herself. ”How charming… wait, what did I just say?” With a shake of her head, Princess continued. “And you are sure that this quest is of noble aim?” she asked out loud.
“Very much so,” Lancer replied with a nod. “I aim to protect my trainer and several others around him.”
“Hm…” Princess said. ”This guy could be telling the truth… but on the other flipper, he could be crazy. I've met plenty of crazy Escavalier, after all. Let's put him to the test.” “Give me the best reason you can for why I must accompany you and no one else will do.”
“Because the lives of those I care about are in danger,” Lancer replied.
“Those you care about, huh?” Princess asked. “Sorry, but I'm afraid I cannot believe you without proof of what you say.” The Empoleon then turned and walked off. ”Now for the final test. Take the bait, my little Escavalier.”
“Wait!” Lancer called. “I-I can prove what I'm saying!” ”I need her to come with me,” Lancer thought to himself. ”I could… no, I would never. But she's getting away. Ah… may Arceus find it in his heart to forgive me for what I'm about to do.” “I have orders to go on this quest and have you accompany me! Orders from Sir Cobalion of the Swords of Justice!”
“What?” Princess asked out loud, though it was supposed to remain in her head. The Empoleon turned around and looked curiously at Lancer. “Say that again?”
“I have orders from Sir Cobalion,” Lancer replied. “There is a threat that affects a number of Pokemon. Sir Cobalion came to me in a dream, informing me that some close to me were among that number, and tasked me with taking matters into my own lances.” Lancer sighed for a moment before continuing. “And there was more. In my dream, I saw you. You are very important to my quest. And no matter what, I need you to come with me.” With another sigh, Lancer added, “Please, Your Highness.”
Princess thought about everything Lancer had just said for a long moment. ”'Orders from Cobalion' my ass,” was the Empoleon's first thought. ”How could I trust someone like this? But… what if he's done this because of how serious he feels his quest is? Grr… and why do I get the feeling he's gonna do something stupid if I'm not there to protect him? Better question, why do I give a damn?” Princess was able to keep her grievances in her head, but Lancer got curious about her silence.
“Are you okay, Your Highness?” Lancer asked.
“I…” Princess started. She then cleared her throat. “And you swear upon your knight's honor that you speak the truth?”
Lancer paused for a second before nodding. “Knight's honor,” he said while crossing his right lance over his chest. ”I will never be able to show my face in public ever again… but this is for you, Alonzo.”
”Wow… what an idiot,” Princess thought with a mental laugh. “Very well. Since there is no way I could question the validity of your request now, I shall join you.”
“You have my thanks, Your Highness,” Lancer said with a bow. “Now come. We've no time to lose. The town we must go to is a long trek away, and we still have two more Pokemon to find and have accompany us.” The Escavalier then turned and began walking, or rather floating, away.
”This should be exciting,” Princess thought to herself as she began following Lancer. ”If I'm remembering the knight's code correctly, once it's revealed that he lied, it will be up to the highest-ranked member of nobility available to determine his punishment. Hm…” The Empoleon grinned to herself as thoughts of sinister punishments began to fill her mind. As well as one punishment, though she tried to avoid at first, that would cause very severe suffering for the Escavalier.

(Fight time)

Upon the sound of a flare being shot into the air, Kanga moved surprisingly swiftly forward towards Felix in order to deliver the first strike of the battle. “Sorry, Felix,” Kanga said as she reared her fist back for a Dizzy Punch, “but you're on a learning curve!”
Right as Kanga delivered the Dizzy Punch, Felix ducked out of the way of the attack and replied with a Headbutt that wasn't strong, but was still enough to knock Kanga away a few paces. “Wouldn't have it any other way,” Felix replied with a smile. He then charged forward and was about to strike with Vine Whip. However, Kanga grabbed Felix's vines before the attack made contact.
“Too slow!” Kanga taunted before using Strength to pull Felix forward before delivering an uppercut that sent Felix into the air. However, he was able to recover back to his feet. “But not sloppy… I'll give you that much.”
”Those are the only two moves I know right now,” Felix thought to himself. ”If Kanga can grab me with Strength like that, I'll have no hope of winning. Time to get creative.” With a deep breath, Felix sent forward another Vine Whip, which Kanga was able to catch once more. However, as she pulled Felix in, the Meganium quickly switched into a Headbutt that was empowered by the speed at which Kanga pulled him towards her. With both her arms occupied by the Vine Whip, Kanga was unable to guard against the attack and she was knocked backwards, allowing Felix to free his vines.
“Not a bad combo, Felix,” Kanga complimented. “But this battle's just getting started. Comet Punch!” As soon as Kanga shouted her attack, she rushed forward at blinding speed.
“Uh, vines guard please,” Felix said worriedly, raising his vines. Kanga attempted to deliver several punches, and strangely enough, Felix was able to block some of these using his vines. However, Kanga was able to get one punch past Felix's defense and strike the Meganium right in the face, causing him to stumble backwards a few paces. Fortunately for him, however, that was the last hit of Kanga's attack.
“Hey, that wasn't bad,” Kanga said with a laugh.
“Thanks,” Felix said with a smile. “Now, I believe it's my turn. Headbutt!” The Meganium charged forward, aiming to strike Kanga at top speed.
“Sucker Punch,” Kanga said with a smile as she employed dark energy to move swiftly around Felix's charge and instead give him a solid punch that sent him flying across the field and right at the feet of the spectators.
“Holy Miltank, this is exciting!” Roo cheered. “Come on, Felix! I know you can do better than that!”
Felix slowly got up and shook himself off before smiling at Roo. “Thanks Roo,” he said before turning and jumping back into the battle.
“This is a Pokemon battle?” Lyra asked curiously. “It just kind of seems like they're crashing their bodies into each other until one of them falls.”
“Well, they don't exactly have complete movesets right now,” Tiny explained. “Kanga's using four of her weaker moves, and Felix has only been a Pokemon for a couple days, so he's not very experienced. But don't worry…” Tiny then turned back to the battle and grinned sinisterly. “I think I foresee a Trump Card… or something powerful.”
Meanwhile, Felix had gotten an idea. Kanga was faster than he gave her credit for, so he had to do something about that speed. “Alright, Kanga, time for my famous second wind!”
Kanga chuckled. Felix had always claimed he got a “second wind” whenever he was on the brink of loss. Since Felix never really did anything in a battle, this second wind more often entailed some kind of convoluted command for a combo. As such, the Kangaskhan readied herself for anything. From her perspective, Felix was readying another Vine Whip. Kanga raised her guard, preparing to defend against and counter the vines. However, she didn't expect for Felix to strike low, attacking Kanga's feet and knocking her off balance long enough for Felix to deliver another Vine Whip, this time striking her in the chest powerfully twice in a row. Then, to finish the combo, Felix charged forward and was prepared to deliver a Headbutt, but instead, he felt some kind of energy well up inside of him, causing the petals around his neck to glow pink.
“Wait…” Tiny said as he leaned forward and tried to figure out what move Felix was using. When the Togetic realized, though, he gasped. “No. No, he wouldn't. Does he realize what move he's using?”
“What's he doing?” Bon Bon asked Tiny curiously.
With a dark tone, Tiny replied, “Petal Dance.”
“A new move, eh?” Felix thought out loud as he charged forward. “Alright, let's see what I've got in store.” As Felix was right in front of Kanga, the petals broke off and spun around Felix at high speed, striking Kanga several times.
“Ah!” Kanga shouted as she tried to defend against the Petal Dance to no avail. “A bit sloppy, but jumping from Vine Whip to Petal Dance is impressive.”
“Heh, thanks,” Felix said with a smile. “Now to finish this!” The Meganium then focused and created a storm of petals, both his own and others drawn from the wind, that struck Kanga several times before hoisting her into the air, spinning her several times, and sending her flying backwards and onto her back.
“Nice… move…” Kanga said weakly while trying to raise her head. However, she quickly fell back down, defeated.
“And that's the battle!” Tiny shouted. “Kanga has been defeated, so the winner is Felix!” There was a little bit of cheering from the peanut gallery, but Felix didn't hear any of it. As his Petal Dance ended, he simply stood still, his gaze focused on the ground before him and a loud ringing filling his ears.
”So this is being confused…” Felix tried to maintain as his prominent thought, but it was being overtaken by the ringing, combined with bright lights, unidentifiable sounds, and the world around him that he could see suddenly seeming like it was off the Nintendo 64. ”Just… stay… still… can't… do… anything…”
“Is Felix okay?” Lyra asked, eying the Meganium curiously.
“See, there's a problem with Petal Dance,” Tiny said. “It's immensely powerful, but the user becomes confused after using it. A confused Pokemon will usually run around madly, attacking everything in its path before they recover. Fortunately, Felix seems to know how to handle his confusion. Lucky Psyduck…”
“Um…” Roo started, “shouldn't you be healing them?”
“Oh right!” Tiny shouted. He then rushed over to Felix before summoning a strange bell. “Heal Bell!” Tiny then rang the bell, causing a soothing wave of energy to rush over Felix, clearing him of the confusion. Tiny then put the bell away before flying into Felix's face and grabbing his head. “Felix, look at me. You okay? All healed up?” Without waiting for a response, Tiny gave Felix a slap.
“Ow!” Felix shouted, pulling away and shaking his head. “I'm fine, Tiny. Thanks, but was the slap necessary?”
“No,” Tiny replied with a chuckle. “Congrats on winning, by the way.”
As Tiny flew away towards Kanga, the events that just happened came back to Felix. “Wait… I won? My first battle as a Pokemon and I won?”
After using Wish on Kanga, Tiny turned around and called, “Yup, and a pretty exciting victory at that. Sure the battle was a bit boring, but nothing rouses a crowd like a huge finale.”
Felix was stunned. She couldn't believe what just happened. He stood still for almost a minute, just letting the disbelief shake off before he suddenly leapt into the air, did a surprising backflip, and let out a cheer. “YAHOO!” he shouted as he landed on his face, but that didn't faze him in the slightest. He got back up and just started dancing. (Not Petal Dancing, of course.)
Meanwhile, Tiny was looking on and shaking his head while smiling. “Yeah, I remember how I felt when I won my first battle,” he said. “But he's dancing rather well for just finishing a battle.” It was right at this moment that Kanga was healed by the Wish and got up. “Did you go easy on him?”
“Heh, I could have snapped him in two if I didn't,” Kanga chuckled as Tiny helped her back to her feet. She then looked at Felix celebrating. “Arceus, when's the last time I saw him this happy?” She then walked over to Felix. “Hey Felix… that was an excellent performance.”
“Really?” Felix asked as he looked up at Kanga. “Thank you. Oh! And sorry about beating you. You're not too badly hurt, are you?”
“I'm still walking thanks to Tiny,” Kanga replied. “But before him… damn, I didn't give you enough credit. You're a pretty good battler for having been a Pokemon for only three and a half days.”
“Thanks Kanga,” Felix said with a smile.
“Felix! Kanga!” a familiar voice called. Everymon and everypony there looked over to see Butters and Breeze flying into the clearing. “That was an amazing battle! Breeze and I saw the whole thing. Kanga was all like 'Woah!' and then Felix was all like, 'Yaaaah!' and then Kanga was all like 'WHARGARBL!' and…”
“What Butters is trying to say,” Breeze continued, “is 'Great job, Felix.'”
“Thanks guys,” Felix said.
It was right at this point that Marcus and Blitz galloped onto the scene. “Oh no! We missed the battle!” Marcus complained as the two Rapidash skidded to a stop.
“Tsk, I wanted to see Felix get destroyed,” Blitz complained.
“Well if that's the case, you didn't miss much,” Felix replied with a smug look.
“Wait a secon- wha…?” Blitz asked, stunned. “But you're… and she's…”
“Yeah, it caught me off-guard at first, too,” Kanga said with a chuckle. “In fact, I'm considering challenging Tiny's call since Felix didn't know Petal Dance when the battle started.”
“Hey, that's how all the heroes of anime win the pivotal battles,” Felix protested.
“Ah, I'm messing with you,” Kanga said with a laugh. “You got a win on me. But next battle, I won't hold back.”
“Looking forward to it,” Felix replied with a smile. Kanga then leaned down and planted a kiss on Felix's forehead.
It was right at this moment that Aria had joined the group. “You two didn't have to take off at full gallop like that, you know,” the Froslass complained.
“I told you to hang on,” Marcus said with a shrug.
“Yeah, but-” Aria started, but she stopped in the middle of her sentence suddenly. “What the hell…?”
“Aria?” Blitz asked. “Are you okay?”
“No…” Aria said as she directed her gaze towards Felix, her expression seeming startled. “No, I don't think I'm okay at all.” The Froslass then started floating towards Felix, who backed away a little.
“Aria, what are you doing?” Felix asked.
“Felix, I have absolutely no idea what's about to happen,” Aria said, “but it couldn't possibly be worse that what will happen if I don't do anything.”
“Aria, I think now would be a good chance to explain what's going on,” Kanga said. It was right at this point that the others joined the group. Lyra was first to realize something about Aria.
”Is this what Shelly was talking about when she mentioned a ghost?” Lyra thought.
“I'm not sure what exactly is going on,” Aria replied. “But there's something within you, something I've never been able to detect before. I don't know why, but I have to know what this is.”
“Um, is… whatever you're about to to going to hurt?” Felix asked as Aria reached out to touch Felix's forehead.
“Ah… how good are you with cold?” Aria asked, but without waiting for a response, she placed her hand right on Felix's head between his two antennae… and nothing happened.
“Is something supposed to happen?” Kanga asked as she observed Felix and Aria standing completely still.
“Yes… something is supposed to happen…” Aria replied with a curious expression. “Whatever this is, it must be resisting my attempts to reach out to it.”
“Is there something I can do?” Felix asked.
“Afraid not,” Aria replied. “With a different environment, I could probably-” Aria stopped when she tried to pull her hand away, but wasn't able to for some reason. “What the…?”
“Aria, you can let go of him,” Marcus said.
“I… can't pull away,” Aria replied. “I'm stuck.”
“Your hand's starting to get pretty cold,” Felix said as he did his part to try to pull away. “Like… 'hurty' cold!”
“I can't!” Aria shouted. “Something's wrong!”
“Marcus, you're Aria's trainer, what do we do?” Kanga shouted in a panicked tone.
“I don't know,” Marcus replied. “This hasn't happened before. Uh… if they're trying to pull themselves away, we could try pulling them ourselves.”
“But that might hurt one of them,” Kanga said. “Felix's body length is literally 60% neck.”
“And I don't think it would be a good idea for us to apply that much force to Aria,” Blitz added. “We could badly burn her.”
“I'm seriously okay with any ideas you guys have!” Felix shouted, his head starting to feel like ice.
Lyra was about to jump in and try to do something, but instead what happened was her horn started flaring with an icy blue aura and started pulling her towards the two Pokemon. “Hey! Whoever's doing this, knock it off!” Lyra shouted as she tried to stop herself to no avail.
“Um…” Marcus said, racking his brain for an idea. “Tiny, use Metronome!”
“What's that supposed to do?” Tiny asked.
“Do we ever really know?” Marcus replied in a panicked tone. “Just… try something!”
“Okay…” Tiny said. He was about to raise his hand and use Metronome, but it was right at this moment that Lyra's horn had made contact with Aria's hand and Felix's head, creating a huge pulse of strange energy that blasted outwards and knocked everyone back, as well as finally separating Felix and Aria.
“Ow…” Felix groaned as he got up and rubbed his head with one of his vines. “What just happened?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Kanga replied as she lifted Felix off of her and got up.
As soon as Bon Bon got up, her first instinct was to help Lyra to her hooves. “Lyra, are you okay?” the earth pony asked.
“I feel like I just downed a dozen milkshakes in five minutes,” Lyra complained as she got up and rubbed her head. “What happened to Roo?”
“We caught her,” Breeze said as he and Butters flew up, Roo riding on the latter's back.
Meanwhile, Marcus was quick to get up and rush to Aria's side. However, what he found was Tiny standing over her with a worried expression. “Tiny, is she okay?” Marcus asked.
“She's not breathing!” Tiny replied, causing Marcus to jump right to the brink of panic. “Marcus, calm down. I'm messing you. She normally doesn't breathe, remember?”
Marcus took a deep breath before replying to this. “Not the best time, Tiny,” the Rapidash said. “Just please answer my question.”
Tiny felt around Aria's body in a few places before getting up. “She's… I dunno if I want to say 'alive,' but she seems normal. Except…”
“Except?” Marcus asked.
“Well… this is a bit difficult for me to explain to even myself,” Tiny said while taking a deep breath. “Aria… isn't quite… Aria.”
“'What does that mean?” Blitz asked as she cantered up.
“There's… well it's… I don't understand it…” Tiny replied while shaking his head. “It's like there's… something inside of her.”
“Like another Ghost-type?” Marcus asked as the others joined the group.
“In a sense,” Tiny replied. “But I don't see how it could have… unless…” Tiny then directed his gaze towards Felix and Lyra. “Unless those two had something to do with it.”
“Us?” Lyra asked, indicating herself and Felix. “But what would we have done?”
“Well, Aria's hand was stuck to Felix,” Tiny explained, “and it was Lyra's magic that caused that explosion… it's all just conjecture right now.”
“So… what do we do?” Roo asked.
“Aria's more experienced with this sort of thing,” Tiny replied while shaking his head again. “And even then, Pinky would be a closer second than me. The best thing to do would be-”
“Look!” Bon Bon shouted as she pointed at Aria. Everyone turned to see that Aria had opened her eyes, but her irises, rather than their normal icy blue color, they were now  green. Everyone took a step back as Aria, expressionless, rose from her lying position and looked around at everyone.
“So it worked…” Aria said in a voice that wasn't her own. “After all these years… I can finally talk to my family once again…”
“Who are you?” Marcus demanded, his flames flaring.
After a moment of silence, Aria replied. “I am Meganium…” she then looked over towards Kanga and Roo. “Kanga's first mate… and Roo's father…”