//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Legacy 
// Story: Hoennshy 
// by Fenix 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy’s Pokédex began to beep as the clock stuck nine o’clock. Petalburg Gym was lit up to illuminate the path for aspiring trainers and to welcome them to the Pokémon League. Fluttershy didn’t feel like one of them. The sun had set hours ago, giving way to the moon and stars whose light was drowned out by the city’s buzzing lights. As she stood near the building, a group of young ponies opened the doors and entered with a large blue mudskipper with orange body protrusions and two dark blue fins on its head. The pokémon made Alerce look like a small chew toy in comparison, which caused Fluttershy to shudder.

“Hey, is it time for your fight yet?” Rainbow Dash asked, excitedly. It had been a few hours since their meal a the ‘Horse du Jour’, and she appeared very antsy for something interesting to happen. “Also, did you see all those ponies staring at me and Pinkie? We must be so cool here!”

“Maybe it’s because you aren’t wearing any clothes, remember?” remarked Fluttershy as she glanced at Rainbow’s exposed hide. She shook her head and looked back at the gym. “I’m not going to fight. I didn’t fight that colt near Oldale Town, so why would I fight a league member?” At that moment she felt Alerce rub its head against her hind leg, making her feel a little less anxious.

“If you aren’t going to do anything then why are we waiting here? We could be doing so many other things like exploring those woods over there, or we could see what else is in this town,” Pinkie argued. She looked around, surveying her surroundings for anything better to do.

“Those memories I have from that girl is telling me I have to go to the gym while I’m here. If I don’t then those headaches will come back.” Fluttershy preemptively rubbed her head, then quickly set her hoof back down. “While I’m here, I’d like things to be as calm as possible.”

Tension filled minutes slowly ticked by as the three waited. The night was quiet; the bustle of the small town had halted, leaving only lit windows and illuminated business signs for any of them to take notice of. The forests were pitch black due to the town’s lights which caused Fluttershy to feel cramped and tense. Back in Ponyville, the moon’s light would dance across the ground with help of the stars, allowing all of Equestria to be seen at night. Even the Everfree Forest, which Fluttershy steered clear of, felt more inviting than the oppressive void that the forests had become.

A few moments later the group of ponies came out from the gym, ecstatic. The blue unicorn was holding a case with several pins in the air with his mouth, hollering and jumping around with excitement. Fluttershy watched as they entered a building with a light red roof to celebrate. She took a deep breath and checked the time on her Pokédex. 9:27 pm. After closing the device, she set it back in her bag and headed towards the door in silence with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie following in suit. She took one last deep breath, then entered the gym.

The inside of the gym felt much more massive than the outside had implied. It was built like a fighting dojo: punching bags were attached to the ceiling with chains, mats covered the hardwood floor with two distinct sides separating it. A Poké Ball design was placed in the center of the gym floor; it seemed to be the theme in the town. Red bleachers covered the perimeter with several ponies in the crowd with signs, bright white florescent lights hung from the ceilings. It was a little much Fluttershy thought. 

“Wow, this place is huge!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly.

“Welcome to Petalburg Gym!” a voice bellowed from the other side of the gym. A light brown stallion with a short black mane approached the three with a smile on his face. “Congratulations on getting—” He paused and quickly galloped over to Fluttershy. “May, you’re my 9:30 challenger? The computer must’ve screwed something up. Your name came up as a weird mess of characters. I’m surprised they let you come here so early.” He hugged her, making her shrink back. “How was the move?”

“Um, my name isn’t—” Fluttershy started and was halted by a short twinge of pain. After squeezing her eyes shut, she opened them and squeaked, “It was... fine,” she paused. “Dad.”

“Uh, Fluttershy? What are you talking about—”

“So, who are your two,” the stallion asked, cutting Rainbow Dash short. He looked at them with a puzzled look. “Your two... naked friends?”

Fluttershy quickly regained her composure. She felt the confidence of the girl her memories were from coming through as she talked to the stallion. “This is Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.” She pointed to both of them, then looked down at Alerce. “...and this is Alerce, my, uh, turtwig?” Her face went flush. She couldn’t stand not knowing what an animal was called and she had no way of remembering if she was wrong, and the stress was making it hard for her to remember.

“Haha, that is a turtwig, I assure you. I’m surprised Birch gave you a pokémon all the way from Sinnoh,” he said, trotting back to the to the opposite side of the arena.

“Um, actually he was a treecko first—”

“Alright, let’s see what your turtwig can do.” The stallion said, facing them with a Poké Ball at the ground. “My name is Norman, the fifth gym leader of Hoenn’s Pokémon League. I humbly accept your challenge.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened, “F-f-f-fifth?” she began to shake. “I-I won’t fight you—” she tried to say as her vision became white and she felt a wave of dizziness rush over her. She wobbled back and forth before collapsing.



She heard a faint voice to her left reverberating through her head. “Hey dad!” Fluttershy quickly opened her eyes and turned her head. The girl from the day before was standing right next to her. She could see her in much better detail than before, but her body was still wispy and translucent. Her face was like that of a monkey’s, but it was sleek with a pointer chain and smaller nose. Her hair was only on the top of her head flowing down like a mane. The spirit’s eyes were much smaller on her head proportion wise than Fluttershy and she was a little taller than her as well. Fluttershy looked around frantically for something familiar, but Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were gone. The bleachers were empty as well.

“May, I didn’t expect to see you here,” the strange looking Norman said, hugging May. He was wearing a red jacket and black pants like he had outside the vision. He towered over Fluttershy, making her a little anxious. “How was the move? Did you get your pokémon yet?”

“Yeah!” she said excitedly as she grabbed a Poké Ball from her belt and released a treecko. “I got him from Professor Birch for saving him from a Zigzagoon.” Fluttershy couldn’t believe what she was seeing. May still had her Treecko in tact. Why Alerce changed into a Turtwig that morning was all she could think about as this transpired.

Norman bent down and patted the treecko on the head, “He looks like a strong one. Maybe we can battle some day when you get stronger.” He looked up at May and placed his hands on her shoulders. “We have a legacy to uphold, May. Do the best you can and have fun. I’ll be rooting for you.”

“Thanks dad,” May responded with a smile before sending the treecko back into the Poké Ball. She turned away and headed towards the doors.

“Wait, there’s a boy outside. It’s Wally, I think. Could you show him how to catch a pokémon? It would really make the kid’s day.”

“Uh, sure.” May responded as she closed the doors behind her.

“Good luck!” Norman yelled as Fluttershy’s vision went white again. She shivered, trying to make sense of the scene.



Before Fluttershy knew it, her vision was perfectly clear again. She was head down into her hooves and the arena was completely silent. Embarrassed, she slowly lifted her head, seeing all the ponies in the gym staring at her with concern contorting their expressions. She got up to her four hooves and quickly uttered an apology.

“Are you alright Fluttershy? You had us worried for a bit there,” Rainbow Dash asked, but got no response. Fluttershy could only think about the vision and how everything in this situation felt wrong. Norman was waiting with a white feral monkey with a red tuft of hair on its forehead out on the field. She couldn’t help but notice its large black claws as well.

After a deep breath, Fluttershy called out, “I won’t fight you—” a sharp pain coursed through her head, causing her to double over. She took some quick breaths and let the pain subside. Why is the pain coming back? I’m not supposed to fight him, she thought, trying to deny Norman again. After feeling another shot of pain coming on she decided enough was enough. “Alright, I’ll fight you.”

She heard the crowd roar. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Pinkie asked. It was the first time Fluttershy had seen Pinkie upset since her surprise birthday fiasco, but she had no other choice.

“I-I’m fine,” she stated coldly. “Alerce, please be careful” The small turtle make his way onto the field and looked back with a smile on his face. The crowed roared and streamers flew as air horns were let off.

“Let the next chapter of our legacy begin, May,” Norman announced, pointing out to the monkey. “Vigoroth, use Focus Punch!” At that moment Vigoroth’s right fist stated to glow white. Fluttershy could see the raw fire in its eyes. Panicking, she dug through her bag and whipped out her Pokédex. She opened it up, hoping it could give her some answers. It beeped as it was opened and the screen began to glow. It showed a screen with an image of Alerce with a list of attacks he had skill enough to perform. One attack stuck out to her. It was the only one she was willing to do.

“Alerce, use Withdraw!” Fluttershy commanded, hoping it was enough to ward off whatever that beast was going to do. Alerce nodded and shielded himself.

Not a moment later, the Vigoroth sprang forward, arching its arm back and slammed its fist into Alerce and the ground, sending him flying and tumbling across the room. It stood there arched over with look of malice as it clenched its teeth. Bound after bound, Alerce slammed into the ground, Fluttershy’s heart missing a beat with every crunch she heard. Her lower lip began quivering as Alerce finally stopped sliding across the ground. He wasn’t moving. 

“A-Alerce?” Fluttershy squeaked, rushing towards the Turtwig. Her throat began to close and tears welled up in her eyes. She tried to say something else as she examined Alerce’s mangled body, but nothing came out.

“Turtwig is unable to battle!” a pony in a black and white striped shirt announced. Fluttershy’s body trembled and small audible sobs were drowned out by the exuberant cheering of the crowd. She nudged Alerce with her hoof, trying desperately to find out the damage he took. There were multiple bruises on his head and legs with several scrapes as well. There was a faint smile on his face, but Fluttershy couldn’t keep her composure any longer.

“F-Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked, placing her hoof on Fluttershy’s back.

“I... I...” Fluttershy squeaked as she picked up Alerce. “I’m sorry!” she cried out as he bolted out the door with tears streaming down her face.

“Fluttershy, wait!” Pinkie Pie yelled out galloping out of the gym with her.

“What did you do!?” Fluttershy heard Rainbow yell out at Norman, but that’s all she could hear before she powered her way through the town and into the forest. After landing on a small dew covered patch of grass she let down Alerce and quickly went through her bag. Inside was a few rolls of cloth bandages and patches laced with herbal antiseptics. She started to tape Alerce’s wounds, trying her hardest to see through the veil of tears in her eyes. After all the wounds were wrapped, she bowed her head, letting all the emotions she had bottled up rush to her at once.

“Fluttershy, are you alright? You left so quickly... I didn’t see what happened,” Pinkie asked, trying to comfort her.

“I-I don’t think I can save him,” Fluttershy sobbed, looking up at Pinkie.

“What do you mean?” the worry in Pinkie’s voice only made Fluttershy more ashamed.

“Turtles are fragile creatures and with the impact of that punch, there’s probably internal bleeding, and I can’t—” Fluttershy felt her heart break in two. “He... He’s going to die just because I didn’t want another headache,” she let her head sink into her hooves and cried. “T-they even cheered...”

“It’ll be alright,” Pinkie stated, trying to comfort her bawling friend. “It’s not your fault they made you fight the fifth guy.” All Pinkie could do was watch Fluttershy wail in the grass. There was nothing she could do for her. She trotted around Fluttershy and looked at Alerce. His eyes were open, and was trying to move. He shook his head, looking as if he was just trying to shake it off. “Are you alright Alerce, that looked like that hurt,” Pinkie said to the turtwig. He turned to her and slightly smiled, still obviously in pain. “You don’t look like your dying, but I’ve never seen anyone die so I wouldn’t know. Hey Fluttershy, do dying animals normally walk around like this?”

Fluttershy’s head snapped up at Pinkie’s inquiry. She took her hoof and wiped the tears from her eyes and saw Alerce struggling to move around, but he was moving nonetheless. “W-what? How is he...?” she sniffed, moving closer to see him better. She couldn’t understand it. In all the years she had been a veterinarian she had never seen an animal make such a miraculous recovery with no medicine so quickly.

“Hey, there you two are,” Rainbow Dash called out as she flew towards the two. “What happened, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, and so is Alerce amazingly,” Fluttershy responded, picking up Alerce. “I have no idea how he survived that hit, but he seems to be making a good recovery.”

“That’s what I figured after talking to that Norman guy. He was saying something about how, uh, ‘polka-men’ are resilient, so Alerce was easily able to take a hit like that. He was wondering why you left in such a hurry.”

“Wait, when did you talk to Norman?” Fluttershy asked, confused.

“After I was done yelling at him. He told me a lot actually. He also gave me this chip to put into your computer thing,” Rainbow took a small chip out from her hair and brought it down to Fluttershy who started to dig through her bag.

“What does it do?” Fluttershy asked as she opened the Pokédex up.

“It registers me for the league!” Fluttershy’s eyes widened at Rainbow’s explanation. She dropped the Pokédex as her mouth went agape.

“What!?” Fluttershy snapped. “After what you just saw in there? How could you want to do this?” She was shaking from the confrontation, but she had to say something.

“I had to do it after seeing what these ‘polka-men’—”

“Pokémon.”

“Right. Anyway I had to sign up after seeing what those things could do. I’ve never seen anything create a crater in the ground after one punch. We need a way to defend ourselves, and those things are what we need.”

“So you want to exploit them? I thought better of you Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow groaned, “No. Norman told me everything about the league. And, since he isn’t so confused with weird memories, I trust that he knows what he’s talking about.” Fluttershy sat down, somehow knowing it was going to be a long explanation. “Okay, so these Pokémon are born to fight. They’re really easy to train so ponies can easily make them really strong really quickly.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said, almost knowing that was the case. Her memories, she found, were becoming more and more useful. Surprisingly, Pinkie was quiet as Rainbow spoke.

“So because they’re so easy to train and with the strange powers they have, they’re basically animal weapons in the wrong hooves.”

“Weapons? That’s a little much.” Pinkie interrupted.

“Whatever, just listen,” Rainbow snapped in frustration. “So the league here was set up to train ponies to protect themselves using these pokémon since we can’t do any magic ourselves. They don’t fight for sport, they fight for self-defense. Well at least that’s what Norman told me.”

Alerce leaped from Fluttershy’s hooves and started to walk around. It had been night for longer than they had thought with the air was now cold with the moon now comfortably situated in the sky. The lights in the buildings had all but gone out with the street lights making the town feel lifeless. “So, what do we do about a place to sleep for the night?” Rainbow asked, trying to change the subject. “Norman told me that there’s this thing called a ‘Pokémon Center’ that houses trainers for free for the night. We could try that.”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Pinkie said, springing up to her hooves. “Is that center the only building over there with its lights on?” she pointed to a building that a light blue glow coming from the windows and a white Poké Ball symbol lit up on the roof.

“Well, what are we still doing here? Let’s check it out,” Rainbow flew off, leaving a rainbow streak behind her. Pinkie hopped along to follow as Fluttershy picked up her medical supplies. She picked up Alerce with her head hung low and made her way to the building to catch up to the other two.

“May?” Norman called out from in front of the gym. Fluttershy turned her head and watched him gallop towards her as Alerce made purchase on Fluttershy’s bandanna. “Are you okay? I never thought that you’d run out of the gym like that...”

Fluttershy stopped to meet the stallion, slightly flinching as Norman embraced her. “I... I was just under a lot of stress, that’s all.”

“That’s good. I’m glad you came out of it okay.” Norman released Fluttershy and patted her lightly on the head. “I thought I had missed something by coming here early.” He looked over to Rainbow and Pinkie as they watched from the distance.

“I’m sorry that I worried you,” Fluttershy said before taking a step back towards her friends. “This is just so new to me...”

“It’s okay. You’ll come into your own sooner than you think.” Norman smiled as he looked back towards the gym. Before Fluttershy could move away, the stallion turned back with a beaming face. “You did well tonight, May. How the league brought you to me first I’ll never understand, but I’ve never seen you more compassionate for a pokémon than I saw tonight. I don’t know if it was your new friends that brought about this change, but I’m so glad to see you before you fully embark on your journey.”

I was more compassionate than May...? What kind of girl is she?

“Good luck, and make sure to keep in touch with me and your mother. We’ll want to hear all about it.” Norman gave Fluttershy one last tight hug before turning back to the gym. “The first gym you should go to is the one in Rustboro City. She uses ground and rock types, so your turtwig should be great against her. If you have any more trouble with your gym order, I’ll make sure to sort it out.” He turned to face Fluttershy one last time. “Make us proud, May. Let our legacy continue.”

“T-thanks,” Fluttershy squeaked as she watched Norman head back inside of the gym as the next opponent made her entrance. She sighed with relief then turned around to catch up with Rainbow and Pinkie as they stood near the entrance of the Pokémon Center. Without saying a word, the three entered the bustling building.

The inside was filled to the brim with cots and mats for ponies to sleep on. There was a direct path to a pink mare with a white doctor’s coat behind a counter. Fluttershy daintily made her way past the mob of ponies, looking at all the medical equipment behind the counter. “Welcome to the Pokémon Center! How can I help you tonight?” the mare asked, bowing her head slightly.

“Um, do you have any more room for the night? I mean with the amount of ponies here...”

“Of course, but we only have room left downstairs,” the mare explained.

“Okay. We’ll head down then I guess,” Fluttershy stated as she daintily trotted towards the stairs.

“Fluttershy, what about Alerce?” Pinkie asked, stopping Fluttershy in her tracks. “Shouldn’t you keep him here for the night?”

“Oh, you have an injured pokémon? We’ll be able to take care of him tonight to make sure he’s ready for wherever you’re headed tomorrow,” the nurse said with a warm smile.

“A-alright,” Fluttershy said meekly as she trotted back over to the desk, letting Alerce hop down onto the counter. “Are you sure it’s alright if I kept him here?” she squeaked in a panic.

“Don’t worry, Pokémon Centers are here to heal pokémon when they’re injured in battles. He’ll be all better by the time you wake up in the morning.” The mare slightly chuckled. “It looks like you tried your hoof in healing him yourself. You have a good eye for patient care it seems.” Fluttershy wasn’t used to getting compliments about her veterinary skills, but she liked it quite a bit. The mare took Alerce and placed him and a bed, letting a pink blob creature with stubby arms and a nurse hat wheel him off to the care center in the back.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy said before she turned back and trotted down the stairs. The basement was just as full of ponies as the main lobby, most of them already asleep. It was as lit up in bright fluorescent lights as the lobby had been, making Fluttershy wish that they would’ve slept under the stars like she did the night before. There was a small empty section on the floor, enough for the three to tightly fit in. Luckily, only one pony could be heard snoring.

“So, you have any sleeping gear in that bag?” Rainbow asked. “I didn’t pack any since I was going to sleep on a cloud on my search. That isn’t really an option here, is it?”

“Uh, I might. I haven’t really had a chance to completely go through this yet.” Fluttershy dumped out the contents of the bag to find anything the three could sleep on. All she could find was one small rolled up sleeping mat. She sighed and unrolled it. “I shouldn’t have fought Norman today.”

“Are you still going on about that? Alerce is fine. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Rainbow started.

“No, I mean a really shouldn’t have fought him. When he challenged me to that fight and I refused, I got some kind of memory vision,” she began as she cleaned up the jumbled supplies. “The girl just talked to him and left to show some kid how to catch a pokémon. Something weird is happening.”

“Huh, that’s strange,” Pinkie said. “Did anything else weird happen today?”

“I already told you about—” Fluttershy paused as she thought about the vision. “So the girl in the vision had a treecko, the pokémon I got from the professor back in that town I ended up in. Like I told you before, Alerce had turned into a turtwig when I was asleep yesterday.”

“Oh, right! Did you see anything strange then? Like... a unicorn, or a wizard?” Pinkie asked as Rainbow groaned and slapped her hoof against her forehead.

“No, nothing like that. I remember my dream was just a normal dream, but something jolted me awake. That’s when I checked on Alerce and he had turned into a turtwig,” Fluttershy paused and glanced at both her friends. “You said that you came early this morning, right?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, then quickly snapped back. “Wait, are you saying we did this?”

“I-I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on.” Fluttershy said, shrinking back.

Rainbow trotted to the small mattress and laid herself down, trying to make room for the other two. “Let’s just get some sleep,” she muttered as she closed her eyes and turned to her side. Fluttershy snuggled into the middle as Pinkie flopped down on the other side. She closed her eyes and saw nothing but red on her eye lids, making it hard to get to sleep, but it didn’t matter to her. She was just happy to have two of her friends help her in this strange world.



The sounds of many voices woke Fluttershy up. She stretched out and shook to get the tension out of her joints, but something felt off. She couldn’t feel Rainbow or Pinkie on either side of her. She opened her eyes and took a look around, noticing they were both gone. Her bag appeared to be rummaged through as well. Without thinking, she rolled up the mat, grabbed her bag, then galloped up the stairs. When she reached the top, she saw bunch of ponies standing in line. 

She wasn’t sure what was happening, but a flurry of senses hit her: the smells of fresh baked goods, specialty fruits, and spices filled the air and pierced her nostrils. She licked her lips; with all the turmoil and thoughts she hadn’t paid attention to how hungry she was. The line was relatively small with most of the ponies already gone with their taken share. She trotted over and waited, cocking her head to the side every once and a while to see what she could get.

“Hey Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash called out, taking Fluttershy out of her hunger filled trance. Rainbow was standing just past the Pokémon Center doors with a brown jacket with a white fluffy collar on which covered a white shirt along with black pants that covered her flank.

“Wait, did you go clothes shopping? Where did you get the money for it?” Fluttershy asked, still trying to take in the sight of her friend with clothes on that wasn’t made by Rarity.

“Pinkie and I woke up before you so we could get some clothes. We kinda took some money out of your bag. We needed to get something.”

Fluttershy sighed, moving ever closer to the massive amount of food waiting on the table. “Where’s Pinkie? I thought you said she went with you.”

“I’m right here!” Pinkie shouted, springing out from behind Rainbow Dash. She had a light blue shirt with jean overalls on. “I couldn’t find anything that looked very fun, so I got something different. Looks good, huh?”

Fluttershy couldn’t help but snicker. In all her time with her friends, she had never seen them look so ridiculous. She covered her mouth with her hoof, trying to disguise the laughter. “I-I’m sorry, it’s just...” Tears formed in her eyes as her laughter grew. A few seconds later she sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. “They look fine.”

“Well at least today’s starting off better than yesterday,” Rainbow said, glancing over at Pinkie. “We should probably find some pokémon to catch. We can’t be out here forever with just Alerce.” Rainbow dug through the pockets of the jacket, taking out several miniature Poké Balls. “I picked up some of these as well. Thought we might need them.”

“Alright,” Fluttershy said as she made her way to the start of the food filled table. She grabbed a plate took a small amount that filled her plate and sat down to eat. Pinkie and Rainbow trotted over and sat down beside her.

“So, what’s the plan? Are we going to go off of your weird, messed up memories?” Rainbow asked.

“I can’t really think of anything else to do. Twilight hasn’t tried to talk to me lately so I don’t know how long it’ll take them to find that spell,” Fluttershy said, digging away at her food. “I’ll get Alerce after this, then we should probably head west since that’s the only other way out of town.” Pinkie and Rainbow nodded in agreement.

“I think no matter what we find, we’ll come out of it okay,” Rainbow stated with confidence. “If we ever get into trouble, we can always use this to help us out.” Rainbow dug through one of the saddlebags and lifted out a small vial of liquid. It was mostly clear, but a wisp of teal viscous liquid swirled and contorted at the slightest movement.

Fluttershy leaned in closer to get a better look before reeling back in shock. “I-is that... armis!? How did you get that? I don’t know of any other pony that has access to that type of medicine!”

“I got it from your medicine cabnet before I left to go find you just in case anything happened to me or you. You said it was a really potent medicine, right?”

“Yes, but I never expected anyone to use it but me.” Fluttershy sighed and took another fork full of food and ate it. “I didn’t expect you to pay that much attention to what I was saying when you were over.”

“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t?” Rainbow asked before Fluttershy’s face flushed in a bright red hue. “Don’t worry about it.” Rainbow placed the vial carefully back into her saddlebag and waited patiently for Fluttershy to finish her breakfast.

“Thanks, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said with a smile as she finished her plate. “Thank you so much you two for coming to help me. It... really means a lot.”

“Don’t mention it, Fluttershy!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Besides all of those weird things, it’s been fun so far! And the ponies are friendly as well!”

With her plate cleared, Fluttershy scooted around the other sitting ponies and reached the front desk. It had been Fluttershy’s first night in this world without a pokémon, and she was anxious to see Alerce again. “E-Excuse me, my turtwig was being taken care of last night. Could I get him back please? Also... what do I owe for breakfast and lodging? It’s my first time in a Pokémon Center, and—”

The mare turned to her, setting down her paper work. “The breakfast is complimentary,” the mare laughed. “What was your turtwig’s name?”

“Alerce.”

“Let me go check.” With that, the mare went off into the back. The three waited in silence, both Pinkie and Rainbow nipping at their new clothes. A moment later Fluttershy saw Alerce on the a cart the mare was pushing, fresh and new. She took him off and placed him on the counter, letting him climb onto Fluttershy’s bandanna. “There you go, good as new.”

“Thank you,” Fluttershy said, making her way out of the Pokémon Center with Rainbow and Pinkie following behind. “He really is resilient,” she remarked. The sun was already half-way up in the sky with a small haze of clouds making their way from the west. The humidity from the other day had returned, making Rainbow and Pinkie squirm a little in their new clothes.

“Bleh, this is going to be disgusting later, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked, finally fitting her wing out from under her clothes. “I can already feel sweat soaking through my pants.” With that, Pinkie Pie suddenly burst out in laughter. Looking towards the path out Fluttershy knew that’s where they had to go next: against the sweltering western wind. “Alright, let’s see what pokémon we can find. There has to be some cool ones over there,” Rainbow said in a hopeful voice as they trotted towards the western forest.