• Published 28th Jul 2014
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Starlight: Redshift - the-pieman



Anthony takes Twilight and Rarity on an unexpected adventure they won't forget in this spinoff of Starlight in a Broken Vessel

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Chapter 46

“So... what TMs did you grab? Anything good?” I say, peering at the colored disks Rarity was holding.

“Well, I have one labeled ‘Hyper Beam’, and one labeled ‘Horn Drill’, and three labeled ‘Attract’, though one of them is a little cracked. I’m not sure if it still works.” Twilight says.

Rarity looks at the labels on hers, and tells me, “I took two named ‘Secret Power’, one called ‘Pay Day’, and I found one called ‘Metronome’. The last one sounds musical, so it’ll be perfect for my competitions!”

I grab the disk “Ohhhhhhhnonononononono this is dangerous!

“Anthony! Give that back and explain!” Rarity says, frowning and putting her fists on her hips.

I put my finger through the little center hole of the CD. “Metronome is a very random attack. You have no idea what it’ll do. What it does is, when used the user may use any move any pokémon in existence could ever use, from Fury Swipes to Doom Desire. Your pokémon could either start shooting flames from it’s mouth, grow a giant claw made out of steel, or explode and you have no idea what is going to come next. Few pokémon can actually learn it, but it’s just as likely the user could end up hurting itself more than the opponent. If you’re on your last leg and you need a trump card and don’t care at all what might happen as long as there’s a chance you win, that’s when you use metronome.”

Rarity looks a little mollified. “Well then... it sounds as though it is rather chaotic. Though, if it’s so dangerous, why is it so freely available?”

“A lot of TMs were freely available because they only had so many uses. One per, to be exact. These disks can only be used once.. The TMs we got from Xavius and Halsey can be used as much as we want, but if we were to teach a pokémon...” I look through the stack of older disks. “...Hyper Beam, we’d only be able to do it once without another one. Only one of our pokémon could learn it unless we got more of the same kind.”

Twilight nods in understanding. “So the more powerful moves on TMs were given away on the single-use disks, but when the reusable versions came out, they stopped being made to keep the battle fair, right?”

“Exactly. I mean, I wouldn’t go out and buy twenty copies of Hone Claws. Double stat boost or not, the move isn’t that good, so they made more permanent disks, but with weaker moves. Of course a few stayed around like Protect, but as different ‘selections’ came out, some moves were lost and therefore unavailable. These would be the only way we could manually teach a pokémon Substitute or Metronome or Softboiled, but if we wanted to do it many times we’d need a lot. Since that would be a horrible thing to do to Richard’s collection we need to be careful with this. Keep in mind that these things went for upwards of five-hundred thousand dollars apiece, but in this day and age, where TMs are reusable, unless we tried selling something like Explosion, we wouldn’t be getting anything for them and if I had Explosion, I’d have used it right away, not sell. it.”

“Really? And what does Explosion do, other than create some form of explosion, judging by the name?” Twilight asks, looking at me as we resume walking.

“Well, remember when I said when you should use Metronome? As a last-ditch effort where you didn’t care what might happen but you had to win... Well, Explosion makes the user... explode. Remember that Koffing the Chainer had? That’s what the flashing probably was. Like, boom. The pokémon can be taken to a Pokémon Center to be healed or revived with items but otherwise that pokémon is going to be out of commission for the duration... Well some pokémon use this tactic as a base means of self-defense, but not all pokémon than can learn it will exactly... uh... be in any condition to move afterwards.”

“That seems a bit self-defeating, though. If it’s knocked unconscious, how does it defend itself?”

“Simple. Because of this tendency, those Pokémon no longer have any natural enemies. I don’t care how hungry you are, would you rather go another half-mile or so to eat, or eat this object that is guaranteed to literally blow your face off?”

Both of the girls wince at the thought. “Alright, that makes sense... But how many TMs are there?”

“Individually, or based on the variety of move? Individually, who knows, millions maybe. By variety... well as I said, it changed over the years and some were dropped but as a total... I think there were about a hundred or so, give or take twenty-five.”

“Oh... that’s quite a few.” Twilight says, looking thoughtful, “Well, it would be prudent to collect as many as possible, yes? They do seem quite useful.”

“You’re a quick learner Twi, that’ll get you far in this world. Yeah, but you also don’t want to spend money frivolously. Rare is it that you’d just find one that someone dropped, and while they aren’t as expensive anymore, it’s more than we have between us to put it lightly.”

The girls nod.

Rarity pipes up. “Oh, Anthony. That mall we went to earlier... perhaps after a few more battles to get some money, do you think we could stop by again? I saw some marvelous dresses on display.”

I’m about to respond when I realize we just walked outside of the lab, my attention grabbed by suddenly having my head soaked again in a matter of seconds. “Rarity, you have a medieval-age dress you made yourself and some decent travelling gear. You have adventure outfit and a ‘fancy occasion’ outfit what else would you need?”

“Well, a nice sundress sounds divine, and some more airy shoes would go well with that. As well, a fine dress for competitions would be a good idea, and I’d love to buy one of the dresses to take it apart for ideas. Ooh, think of the things I could learn, darling!”

“Fine, but you’re buying that stuff on your own dime. You wanna go on a shopping spree you need to earn the money yourself, and as trainers, there’s always a good way to earn money.”

“Or lose it, considering it’s a gamble.” Twilight admonishes.

“Really now? So, how else do we get money while we’re on a cross-continent journey living off the land and whatever we can buy, meaning we can’t possibly have a stable job or income unless we stopped our adventure flat?”

“I’m just saying, it is a gamble, Anthony.”

I relent. “Okay, I won’t deny that it is, but hey... it’s the same for whoever we challenge. We know what we’re getting into, they know what they’re getting into. Unless you specify that the battle is for sport or training purposes only, everyone involved knows somebody is going to open their wallet at the end.”

“Oh, alright. Wait, even for gym battles? We weren’t charged for our losses in Autumnwash.”

“Nah, the League doesn’t do it. They aren’t against trainers battling for money, but it is a good way to, in this society, keep the economy running. Why not the standard greeting involve some money changing hands just to keep the cash circulating? It’s just economics. And some League-Registered areas may also have prices, but it’s not a constant, a notable place being Battle Parks.” We walk into the nearest pokémon center and I gratefully take the towel by the pokémon at the door before drying myself off and feeling like a drowned rat once dry.

“Say, we went to the Aquarium. There was a bunch of aquatic pokémon there, and a bunch of them didn’t look like you’d find them in a lake. How would anyone catch those?”

“Well, trainers either swim out into the ocean themselves -or dive down themselves- or they get assistance from a pokémon to help them. It takes a really talented pokémon to ferry itself and it’s trainer into the ocean and back out so it’s usually something a Trainer would do once they’ve gotten a third or fourth badge. But yeah, they just go out into the ocean and catch them. It’s just another environment, like a forest but more wet.”

I recall the girls’ rather... less-than-amazing talent in the gym swimming pool and quirk an eye. “You... can swim right? Even as ponies you can...”

“Well... I will admit dear, I’m not particularly graceful in the water as my natural self. But I have become rather alright as a human.” Rarity says.

“I know the basics, and I’ve practiced as a human. But I’m too heavy in the water to swim naturally,” admits Twilight, blushing embarrassedly.

I sigh. “Alright... Well we’ll stick by the shorelines and get ourselves some decent seafaring pokémon before heading for the ocean. Spheal would actually be a good diving buddy once it evolves, but Sealeo aren’t meant for long horizontal water-travel.”

“As in, diving? Well, that’d be alright if we can find a way to bring air down with us. I know a few spells to help with that, but I can’t really cast them while human.”

“You ponies think too small. Did you forget what I said about human adaptivity? We have ways of bringing air down underwater with us, clothing that increases one’s ability to swim through water and even some devices that can allow someone to withstand thousands of pounds per square inch of water pressure deep below the water’s surface, now we are in a public place can you please stop acting so... so..” I sigh. “Stupid?”

“Sorry... I just don’t know what your limits are. You talk about some things, but I don’t even know what to look for to find out what I should look up.” Twilight shrugs. “I just honestly don’t know where to start, and you don’t exactly hand out a tutorial on ‘how to understand the human race’.”

“Usually because we’re the only race that has a written language, we suppose if you can read our stuff you must be human already or at least a damn smart pokémon and therefore familiar with humanity’s culture. You guys are aliens and it gets a little weird talking to you like this when you look like a pair of totally average teenage girls just out of High School.”

“Average?!” Rarity shrieks, looking utterly indignant.

“High school?!” Twilight yells, looking insulted.

I glare at them. “First off Rarity, all your self-improvement tricks aren’t exactly going to convert with you to other forms. I mean sure you’re still really pretty but come on, you aren’t exactly sticking out.” I jab my thumb at the other anime-girls around, young, shiny-haired with nary a mole or spot to be seen and bright clear eyes. Every single one of them. It’s actually a little creepy now that I take a moment to actually look.

“Well... I suppose that’s true. I don’t have a coat to brush like this... but still, I am sure I’m above average.”

“And for a teenage girl, that is the most average thing you could possibly utter. Just saying. And what’s with you Twi? You have as bad a nightmare with High School as I did?”

“What, no! I just think you should give credit where credit is due; I’ve already attended an established and esteemed university.”

I quirk an eyebrow and walk up to a random guy and tap him in the shoulder. “Hey, did you know that this girl here graduated at top of her class at a school built by a giant horse who moves the sun?”

The guy looks at me weirdly. “Are... you alright?”

I grin. “That’s all I needed.” I sit back down and lean on the table, looking at Twilight. “You were saying...?”

“Just because it doesn’t exist here doesn’t mean it didn’t happen! Or would you like me to treat you like an infant because your life before you showed up in Ponyville didn’t happen there?”

“See, it’s funny because my life before coming here didn’t happen here either, so technically speaking, all I did was read different books from you.”

“So, then, you’re in the same cloud here. How about you don’t insult my education, and I won’t insult your... everything.”

“You’re mistaken on two fronts. One, I don’t get puffed up and flustered at insults being thrown my way unless you insult my friends, who also happen to be your friends. And two, I meant you look like you’re just out of High School, as in your age.”

“Oh... well, then, I retract my previous statements.”

Rarity simmers down as well. “I suppose if you merely meant I looked young, then I cannot fault you. I am youthfully radiant.”

“Anyway, let’s go over what we have and what we need. I still say we aren’t going to get very far into the second gym yet-” That reminds me. I pull out GlaDoS’ ball and zap the little guy onto the table we’re sitting at. He chirps at me happily.

“Heya buddy, how about some extra juice?”

“?” the Votato makes a noise that’s hard to interpret as a word, but is unmistakably a querying tone.

Fishing out my -and our only- TM case I pull out Zap Cannon and apply the disk to the Voltato’s head. There’s a bit of a... trick of the light maybe, from the disk and... uh... “So... did it work?”

GlaDoS shrugs, an odd gesture from a potato, but an unmistakable one nonetheless. I should probably tell it what move that was supposed to be.

I pick up the little guy and drop him on my shoulder and I gesture for the girls to follow me upstairs to the specially-made battle area. I doubt that a high-powered Electric attack would be welcome in an unprotected room full of damp people.

Once the four of us are in the contained area, the girls on the ‘observer’ benches on the far side, I toss out Geodude.

“Alright, I need your help to test something. You’re a tough Ground type, think you can handle a little Electricity?” Geodude nods, and I turn to GlaDoS after setting him down. “Alright, you stay right here, Geodude, you stand over there.”

My pokémon are in place and I stand behind GlaDos. “Alright, here goes nothing... GlaDoS! Zap Cannon!

The little pokémon’s entire body pulses yellow, starting at its root-tips and coming towards its eyes. Right in between its three eyes, a gold-and-green orb forms, then blasts off at Geodude, several arcs of electricity connecting it to the ground below as it flies. The impact makes Geodude shudder and grimace, but doesn’t leave a mark.

“Heh, alright! Zoli’s going down!”

“Uhm... Anthony, do you need glasses dear? That did nothing at all...”

“Geodude’s a Ground type, Electricity is nothing to him. Want me to prove it? Get Feebas out and see how much ‘nothing’ she can take!” GlaDoS extends a vine-like root up to me and I give the guy a low-five of success.

“Ah, that’s interesting. It certainly looked good, though... hmm, perhaps that could be used for effect.” Rarity stops for a moment and pulls out a pad of paper, and appears to be scribbling down ideas, near as I can tell.

“Whatever, that’s Zap Cannon, so that’s how TMs work. Uh...” I flit through the TMs in my case, Rarity not having put the new-old ones in yet. “Captivate... Eh, fine. Hey Rarity I got one for you to try.”

“Oh? What is it?” she calls back, standing and coming down to the arena.

“Here, it’s the TM Xavius gave you, Captivate. It only works if the target is... interested in the user’s gender but it lowers the target’s stats so they aren’t going to be very effective with using their Special Attacks like Flamethrower or Solarbeam or... Zap Cannon.”

“Oh, that seems quite useful. Now... how do I use it?”

“You just... take a pokémon who can learn it and tap the disk to their forehead and it sort of... transfers the information, converting data on the disk into knowledge in the pokémon’s head. I think early technology being too young putting a strain on the disk is why it only worked once. But this and Zap Cannon are more recent so it’s multi-use.”

“Well, however it works, I’m sure I’ll find a good use for it. May I keep the disk?”

“Sure, just be careful. You can still damage or break it like anything else, and I already made it clear that we couldn’t replace it. Anyway, wanna teach it someone and give it a shot?”

“Hmm... yes. I think I’ll teach it to Ledyba and Glorious!” Rarity immediately begins reaching for her pokémon.

“Uh, Ledyba yeah, Glorious no. Honedge are... well let’s put it this way: pretty or not, do you really think you could, biologically, consider a possessed sword to have a gender?”

“I’m not a taxonomist...” Twilight starts. “And pokémon are pretty amazing but when he says it like that.... I have to agree.”

“So yeah, Ledyba. Sewaddle could probably learn it though, truth is, most pokémon with a gender can learn it, so I guess it’s to our advantage that this one won’t die after one use.”

“Erm, Anthony, Glorious may be metallic in nature, but even I can tell you that these ‘Honedge’ have genders. I took the time to check, just in case. Wouldn’t want to offend, after all.”

“Still, I don’t think a ghost sword could give a pokémon ‘the look’ or anything.”

“Hmph, fine. But I’m only trusting you because you have more experience. I’ll teach Glorious to captivate anyone the normal way.”

“Suit yourself. Alright, so who’s getting it first? Ledyba?”

“Of course. Come on out, dear,” Rarity cooes to her pokémon, and the giant ladybug crawls off her back and hovers to the ground. Rarity gently presses the Captivate disk to the pokémon’s forehead, and the ‘trick of light’ happens again.

“I’m guessing it worked, yes?”

“I suppose, but the only way to know for sure is to try it. And Ledyba really should battle more at least so she can evolve. Whether you like to battle or not, it’s how she’ll grow and you saw what she’ll look like.”

“Indeed. Hmm... perhaps you and I could battle? Just to give my own pokémon some more experience battling. As much as I care for them, they simply won’t be a match for many of the things I’ve seen you looking at on your éTech. I must make sure my darling dears are as ready as they can be.”

“Sure... alright.” I toss out Oddish, recalling Geodude and GlaDoS afterwards. “Tell you what, I’ll even fight without using any harmful moves at all, sound good?”

“That sounds perfectly fine.”

“Alright, I warned you...” I say as I step over to the opposite side of the arena, my freshly-caught Oddish just kinda... following because there’s really nothing else to do, it certainly doesn’t seem terribly attached to me yet, which I can understand.

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