//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Friendship, magic and pokémon // by daniboyi //------------------------------// Ash slowly woke up next morning by Pikachu who tickled him with his tail with a teasing smile. Ash just grumbled lightly and made a weak attempt of a hit against Pikachu and failed miserably as the ray just jumped away and out of reach as he called "Pika!" and ran downstairs. He followed the excited rat with a little frown, not happy being waken up against his will and on a free day none the less. He walked downstairs and saw the room empty, which confused him as Pinkie always seemed to wait for him to get breakfast before they left together. He noticed Mrs. Cake just walked inside the front door and asked "Hello Mrs. Cake. Do you know where Pinkie is by any chance?" She looks at me with a smile and said "Yeah, she is doing a business trip for us to get some supplies in a town nearby. It's not a very long trip, but she will first be back by tomorrow I'm afraid." Ash sighed, already feeling his stomach drop and the feeling of emptiness that began to fill him from the inside form. He gave her a smile and ate his breakfast quietly, while Pikachu gave him a worried look, knowing his best friend and trainer was missing what Pikachu saw as his possible future mate. As Ash was done with his breakfast he decided he would visit Fluttershy, it had been some time since he last spoke to her and to be honest he quite liked the shy and silent pony, she was like a really cute little sister that needed protection. He walked through the town with Pikachu walking calmly next to him with a smile. He exited the town and wandered towards the hut in the distance near the Everfree forest. He walked up to the house, which looked like a mix between a tree, a house and a small hill, and knocked the door gently, not wanting to disturb her as he knew how easily she got frightened or startled. He heard a small voice coming from inside the house "Come in…" He gently opened the door and entered the house to see Fluttershy in full time making a very big plate of salad to all of her bunnies around the house and smiled at the sight. She had the biggest hearth out of all of his friends and was the most caring pony he knew. "Hello Fluttershy, how's it going?" She turned around in the air and gave a weak smile to him and said "I'm fine… What are you doing here? Where is Pinkie?" She looked around, as she was certain she would jump out from anywhere, any second. He sighed and said "She is out of town to gather supplies for the Cakes, so I went down here to see how you are doing, it have been some time since we have spent some time together." Fluttershy responded with a bright smile "That would be wonderful, but sadly I'm very busy today with my animal friends, they are very hungry and especially some of the females since it's just been mating season and quite a few of them are expecting babies." She had a little blush when she mentioned mating season, but it disappeared instantly again, while she would be mortified about talking of mating between two ponies, it didn't bother her if it was animals. "How about I help you? I have really nothing better to do as it's my day off at Sweet Apples Acres and Pinkie is out of town. You get done faster and we could spent some time together. I even brought Pikachu." He added, which caused her eyes to light up in excitement, she had quickly found a love for the small yellow creature and while she cuddled or played with him, she always stroked his ego with stating how amazingly intelligent he was or how good in shape he was too. She nodded eagerly and quickly gave him some instructions for him to do, while she prepared the salad. Such things as feed the chickens, or check for eggs in chicken house and all that stuff, he smiled at the list, not very different from normally taking care of his pokémon and happily started, looking forward to being done with the chores so he could spent some time with a good friend. It took them around one to two hours before they were done, but as they finally had feed the last animal and checked the last bunny, they returned tired, but happy for a good work, to Fluttershy's house. She poured up some tea for both of them as she said "So anything planned for today?" He shook his head and said "Not really, maybe I visit some of the others while I'm at it. Want to go to the town with me after we had our tea?" She smiled to him and nodded as she poured up his tea "I would love to. I really have been busy lately and missed to see you and the others lately, it was only luck I was able to meet with Rarity at our weekly spa together yesterday…" She finished with a little sad tone. He smiled encouraging too her and drank his tea. She turned her attention to Pikachu, who was happily eating a couple of cookies she had to visitors, and said "So how are you doing Pikachu?" She had learned quickly that Pikachu didn't like all those sweet name and had intelligence on the same level as the rest of them. He looked up at her with a mouth full of cookies and swallowed them all easily, before replying "Pika! Pi pika chu!" and took another bite of the cookie in his hands. Fluttershy looked at Ash for a translation as they all knew by hand now, that Ash had such a bond with his pokémon that he could just as well understand what they said. He smiled at her too and said "He said his doing fine, but misses some of our friends at my world" "Oh…" She replied looked a little sad, before she asked "Ash…? If it is possible for you, to get home to your own world as Princess Celestia is studying on. Would you go back?" Ash looked shocked over the question and looked up at her, before he sighed and said "I really don't know. It's not that I fell homesick as I'm used to only see my mum once a year and have you as friends and Pinkie, but I just can't get over that if I can't get back no one would ever see me again, my mum, my friends, all of my pokémon… They would all think I have disappeared or are dead, it has already been over a week and I'm sure they have noticed something I'm gone by now… I just wish there was a way to contact them in any way, just to tell them I'm fine…" He looked up at Fluttershy, who had tears in her eyes as she listened to what have bothered him, since he came here, and asked "It is bad I want to go back, but still wants to stay with Pinkie and you girls? I don't want to hurt Pinkie by leaving, but I don't want to hurt my friends in my world or my other pokémon friends as they will miss me just as much…" He suddenly felt himself gripped in a strong hug and tears mixed with his fur as Fluttershy cried as she held him "Oh Ash! T-That's so s-sad. I can't imagine having to c-choose between my friends and my family! I-I'm sure we find a resolution, the princess and Twilight is both working on it and if there is one thing I know about Twilight by now if that she doesn't give up for a friend!" Ash smiled and gently pulled out of the hug "I know 'Shy, but that still doesn't solve my problem with staying or not… I guess I'll just have to think about it…" Trying to change the subject he said hopefully "I'm done with my tea, how about we go meet Twilight or some of the others?" She nodded, accepting he didn't want to talk about it right now and they both headed for the door. They walked towards the town and found the streets surprisingly empty, they walked through the town in confusion and finally saw a large crowd gathered before some kind of stage where a blue unicorn mare was standing with a cloak filled with stars, fireworks was exploding from her scene, making all sorts of stars and twisters and spirals in the air, as the crowd oohh'ed and ahh'ed at the impressive show. Ash moved through the crowd with Fluttershy just behind him, he moved past the last ponies, who were Applejack and Rarity, who each gave him a quick greeting before turning their attention to the mare at the scene again. She stood up on her back hooves as sparks ignited on each side of her as she cried out "Behold the Great and Powerful Trixie! The most magical of all unicorns!" And she 'proved' it by producing a bunch of flowers, which made Ash roll his eyes in disbelief. He had literally seen Twilight done that in her sleep on day where she had fallen asleep in the park as they all had a picnic and she apparently had a dream about a lot of flowers, suddenly her horn started glowing and several flowers fell from the skies and appeared on the trees around them. It wasn't before they had woken her up she was able to make them disappear again with a heavy blush, while Dash had trouble stopping laughing and Fluttershy smiled as she looked at all the flowers. He heard AJ distantly comment "Doesn't need to brag all about it." Rarity voice her agreement with saying, loud enough to be heard "Yeah, most unpleasant!" Trixie turned towards them with a small superior glare and said "Well it seems we have some me-e-easly ponies who aren't convinced that Trixie is the greatest of all!" "Hey!" Called Rainbow Dash out as she flew over in front of Trixie, looked her directly in the eyes and said "We don't need anypony coming here and brag about being the best!" Ash looked at her with suspicion as she does that all the time "That's my job!" Suddenly he had trouble holding back a laughter, that comment was so Dash. Trixie just stared at her with a raised eyebrow and answered "Let's see what the brute of a Pegasus can do against the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Dash was instantly flying towards a windmill and around it, making it spin rapidly around and sent herselv flying up with incredible speed, through several clouds. Suddenly, when she was very high up, she stopped and turned around, flying in the same route back through the same clouds, this time having a trail of water following her, because of the wind she created. She spun around the same windmill and a second later, she was standing on the stage again. The trail of rain hit her from behind, sending out a glitter and a rainbow appeared as the water mixed with the sunlight. The ponies near the stage began to applause her, she smirked and said confidently "They don't call me Rainbow and Dash for nothing!" Ash got a little nervous as he saw Trixie smirk evilly and her horn shone in a blue light, the rainbow above Dash shone in the same colour and suddenly it rapidly surrounded Dash and spun her around with amazing speed as it pulled her into the air and straight into the ground. Her eyes swirled as she was really dizzy and AJ looked angrily at Trixie as she moved up and said "Ok! Ya may have yer fancy magic, but can ya do this?" She then proceeded to pull out a rope with a lasso bound in the end, she swung it around and then began to jump through the loop as she spun it around, the crowd cheered at AJ and Trixie looked annoyed, before she smirked, something that Ash again noticed and worried him greatly. Again her horn glowed in a blue light and the rope began to move forward like a snake towards AJ, she looked at it with big eyes as it swayed in front of her. Ash noticed the other end of the rope sneaking up on her from behind and was just about to warn her, when it swirled around her legs and bound the together, the front end of the rope took an apple and put it in her mouth, leaving her unable to say anything as she jumped off the scene with a embarrassed blush as the crowd laughed. Ash felt very annoyed and said "Somepony needs to set her in her place!" and looked over at Twilight, who noticed his hint and looked away. Spike caught his hint with a smirk and continued "Yeah. Somepony with a little magic of her own!" He nudged Twilights side, she looked at the ground in response, not saying no or yes. The others voices their agreement and looked at Twilight with a smile. Suddenly a voice behind them came out "Ok! No need for this pressure! I will show her how a true unicorn should act without her brutish ways" She walked gracefully up at the scene "A unicorn needs to have style, class. She needs to be graceful!" With that her horn gloved in a blue light and some curtains from the scene flew down and surrounded her in a short twister, a bright flash filled the scene and after the light faded, stood Rarity on the scene with a dress that fitted her perfect and really showed of her beauty. Her mane was set up in a graceful way. The crowd let out a combined 'oohhh' that revealed their positive opinion of the dress she had made. Trixie just smiled and her horn shone once again, making Ash dread what she could possible do to Rarity. A bright flash again filled the stage with light for a second and Ash immediately paled when he saw Rarity. "What did she do to my hair? I know she did something terrible to my hair!" She cried out in panic. "No you're hair is perfect!" Twilight said with a false smile. "Yeah!" AJ said in agreement, looking anywhere but Rarity. "It's green…" Spike said, unable to stop himself. Ash groaned and hit Spike lightly over the head, making him blush in embarrassment. "No! Not green!" She cried "Green is such an awful coloured!" She cried as she ran away from the crowd. "Well excuse me!" A mare with a light green hair said, offended by Rarity's choice of words, and left too. Ash turned and glared at Trixie who smiled over the crowd, obvious to the glares she got from at least 50% of the crowd as she had just offended their friends. "Looks like no one can hold up to the power of the Great and Powerful Trixie! I am truly the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria!" She said, as Ash and his friends turned around and left annoyed. He noticed that Twilight was in a hurry to get home, and wondered what she was up too. He turned and walked after her, following her to the library. He walked over and knocked on the door. "Come in!" Twilight's voice called. He opened the door and walked too see Twilight reading a book, while Spike looked sour. He walked over too her and asked curiously "What are you reading?" "Just a book about Ursa Majors." She answered without looking up. "Why are you reading that?" Asked Spike surprised. "Just a thought… Trixie said she was able to vanquish an Ursa Major, I find that really hard to believe. Look at this sketch, it shows the average size of an Ursa Major compared too a normal pony, unicorn and Pegasus." Ash looked over her shoulder to see the sketch and his jaw dropped as he saw the size of the Ursa Major. According to the book an Ursa Major could very well be the size of a mountain and could surely crush Canterlot with a few swipes of its enormous claws. There was also a drawn picture of it made from a pony that had seen one on sight. It was humongous with a deep purple fur, had a moon and a star mark on its forehead. Ash gulped at the thought of ever meeting one of those. Sure he had fought Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos with Lugia and almost got destroyed in the battle between Groundon and Kyogre, but still… This was one major bear and he had lots of help in all of those adventures. "Ok…" He said "I could believe her if it was only a normal bear or at the size of a tree or something like that, but no way she could ever manage to vanquish such a beast. That would at minimum require the gathered magical power of all unicorns in Canterlot!" "Most likely." State Twilight in agreement "So either Trixie most be more powerful that Celestia herself or she is a fake and I'm most likely to believe the last conclusion…" Ash smirked and cheered teasingly "Go Twilight! Use logic attack!" She turned around and gave him an amused glare and a smirk. She just shook her head and then asked him "By the way, I haven't seen Pinkie around today, do you know where she is?" Ash just gave her a smile and said "On a business trip for the Cakes to a nearby city to get some special ingredients. She'll be back by afternoon, or I will personally search for her myself." She just gave me a smile and said "I have no doubt you will lover boy, but don't be surprised if she doesn't appear before tomorrow, because of a party she attended." He blushed at her nickname for him and just mumbled something unintelligent and turned around a left a chuckling Twilight. He got home to The Sugarcube Corner rather quickly and went for bed, after taking a quick bath. He was very tired after a hard day of working with Fluttershy and the dealing with Trixie, even through she still was in Ponyville and annoyed people to no end. His last thoughts before he fell asleep was wondering how Pinkie was doing… Ash looked around confused, he wasn't in his room anymore or for that matter in Ponyville or Equestria. He was in a large empty area, filled with a thick magical looking fog that gently moved around him. He looked around confused and slightly tense, not knowing where he was or how he got there, made him very vulnerable for an attack from every angle. He noticed he still was in his pony form and moved his tail down to get one of his most trusted companions, but to his horror and surprise found them all gone. He suddenly heard a faint whisper, a female if he heard correct, it was impossible to make out what the whisper said as it was very low. He looked around, almost in panic by now and yelled "Who are you? What do you want?" The whisper came again, but this time with a little more volume and Ash was able to hear parts of what the female voice said "Remember… Qualities… Friends…" Just as Ash was about to ask what she meant, the world shone in a bright white light. Ash woke up by a loud roar, he sat up in shock in his bed, thinking "What the hell was that?" Thinking of both the weird dream and the roar that woke him up, he quickly rolled out of bed, landing on all his four legs and with his mouth grabbed both his belts that had pokéballs around them. He attracted them to his legs and ran out of the shop. He looked around and saw everypony running around in panic, he wondered why for just a second, before he looked towards the place they all ran from and to his horror saw a large midnight blue bear with a light blue moon marked on its forehead. Without a second thought he ran over towards the bear, ignoring the cries of horror as some of his friends, Rarity and Fluttershy, saw him running towards the dangerous animal. He quickly wrapped his tail around the pokéball containing his largest and one of the strongest he had. He tossed it into the air and gave it a swift, but easy kick so he didn't destroy it. A bright white light filled the dark night and suddenly the white was exchanged with a red light from a small fire, in between Ash and the giant bear, stood Charizard tall and proud. Ash did this process multiple times and soon his whole team stood in front of him, all sensing the serious situation they were in and all had frowns on their faces. Ash looked at him seriously as he said "Ok guys and girls. I know this may seem like a hard task, but I need your help to stop this beast right behind you!" They all turned around and gaped in shock over the enormous bear in front of them, easily towering them by ten-twenty feets. They stood like that for a few seconds, before the bear roared in annoyance over the challengers he had just spotted and made a swipe for them. They all spread over the field, Pidgeot and Charizard flew into the air to attack from above, Glalie kept his distance firing many ice attacks with Pikachu next to him doing the same with electrical attacks. Sceptile had jumped onto its back and kept hitting it with bullet seeds and leaf blades time after time, while Feraligator had moved behind it, firing large water attacks at its back. The bear roared in pain over the repeatedly attacks and made several swipes around it, trying to strike the pokémons who was too fast for it. It spotted Ash standing there and as the smallest and easiest target to get, it roared and charged towards him, it wasn't that fast but the drawback was for each step it took, Ash had to take twenty, making the bear easily catch up to him. The pokémon saw this threat against their master and quickly increased the power of their attacks and speed, making the bear wince in pain, as it had several burn marks and cuts into its skin around its body. Ash looked over his back as he ran from the bear and gulped as he saw it came closer and closer. He closer his eyes in concentration and pulled himself to the limit, increasing his speed. He suddenly heard a voice yelling "WAIT! DON'T HURT IT!" It made him quickly loose his concentration as he turned and looked at Twilight shocked over her defence of the violent beast. To bad that this small distraction was all it took as Ash felt something large hit him by the side, sending him flying into the nearest building and through the wall, he groaned as the unbelievable pain hit him, blood running down his side and the cries yelling out his name. Blackness took over.