“I’m sorry…” said Twilight a little while later, brushing tears from her cheeks. “But you… you just can’t expect me to believe something like… that.” She sniffed.
“Like what?” asked Pikachu.
“Like the Unconquered Sun, Banisher of Shadows, Mistress of Magic, Radiant Protector, the Victor of Ten Thousand Battles was in the space of a few days captured, broken, and pressed into servitude by… by… by a band of incompetent boobs!” Twilight snapped a little more harshly than intended. Just imagining the magnitude of such an insult to her idol irritated her. Granted, it probably wasn’t intentional. “There’s no way that could possibly be true!”
Pikachu chuckled a bit. “I’ve been dealing with Team Rocket since…” he thought a moment. “Since literally the same day I met Ash. I think I’m more qualified to judge them.”
“And I’ve been dealing with Celestia since I was a foal! The idea that anyone but the vilest, cruelest, most powerful and cunning gang of villains to have ever lived could have the slightest hope of forcing her to serve them is utterly inconceivable!” She stamped one hoof.
“Maybe you’re overestimating your teacher a bit?” Pikachu hazarded.
“Impossible.” Twilight looked him straight in the eye. “Princess Celestia is the greatest hero that ever was or will be in my universe. The idea that a trio of bumbling morons like you describe could turn her to the service of evil is just impossible.”
“Maybe it wasn’t forced?”
Twilight just stared down at the little yellow Pokemon, eyes an unblinking maelstrom of unbending pride and purest contempt. Pikachu looked back into those fathomless depths, feeling his ears slowly fold down.
“Or…” he went on, “maybe Team Rocket is actually a ruthless band of hyper-competent criminals who’ve merely been stalking my trainer and I for years pretending to be nigh-harmless goofs as part of some grand and elaborate evil plan the likes of which our mortal minds can scarcely comprehend?”
“Good.” Twilight’s face was suddenly smiling again. “I’m glad you’re seeing reason!”
Pikachu breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Let’s see…” The alicorn turned away from him, beginning to pace with one hoof rubbing her chin. “They’re devious, evil, manipulative, and powerful, that much is a given. But to spend years stalking a kid and a Pokemon that isn’t even terribly rare… why would anyone do something like that? Even I can’t think of any real plausible angles for wanting to appear that weak while continuously drawing the attention of authorities. Not to mention the constant fake and unnecessary humiliations, property damage, and simple pain. Surely they have to have wills and bodies of the firmest iron!”
“Well they do keep getting back up from falling out of the sky…” Pikachu conceded. “And I guess it takes an iron will to just keep coming when it’s obvious you’ll never succeed.”
“Right, now you’re getting it!” Twilight nodded. “Don’t feel bad about not seeing this before, it’s obvious that they’re as duplicitous as they are brilliant. I don’t doubt my friends and I would have fallen for their subterfuge too if we didn’t have all the knowledge of Princess Celestia that I do.”
“Right,” Pikachu nodded back. Crazy alien princess lady.
“But after all these years of trying, why risk their illusion now? Why spend years meticulously fooling all who knew them about their true strengths and wickedness only to potentially give the game away by subduing Princess Celestia? Surely that can’t have been their end game. Even the most fiendish intelligence couldn’t possibly have predicted her arrival. So that must mean their end goal is somehow even grander and more terrible than the corruption of Sol Invictus! And they must be nearing completion even as we speak! We have to work fast if we want to stop them, save your world, and rescue my mentor!”
“Here’s my guess,” Pikachu interjected before she could work herself into another rant. “We were in a battle because they tried to steal me, again. They were losing, again. So they tossed out their new Pokemon to try and turn the tide but it didn’t help so they went blasting off, again.”
“No no no.” Twilight shook her head. “We’ve well established that Team Rocket is far too cunning and insightful to risk years of hard work cultivating their illusion simply because of a little pain and humiliation they’d endured a thousand times before.”
“We have?”
“So they must obviously have had a deeper angle to the sudden reveal. But what? Sending a message, perhaps? But what message, and to whom?”
“Aren’t you just assuming the conclusion and working backwards?”
“But you had a good idea.”
“I did?”
“Of course,” Twilight nodded. “Run me back through the first time you saw Team Rocket deploy Celestia. Maybe it’ll give me some clue as to their real intentions.”
“Okaaay…” Pikachu paused to collect his thoughts, then began. “Well, it was an ordinary day on Route 14. The sun was shining, the Beedrill were buzing, and we were all on the way to Laverre City for Ash’s sixth Kalos gym badge. Then out of nowhere this massive rubber hand just grabbed me off of Ash’s shoulder and pulled me up to a hot air balloon. Wouldn’t you know it, it was Team Rocket again, after me like every week.”
“You said out of nowhere,” Twilight interjected. “Didn’t you say Team Rocket use a gigantic balloon in the shape of Meowth’s head?”
Pikachu nodded.
“So they snuck up on you… with a hot air balloon?”
“Uh… I guess?”
“See, evil genius!” Twilight grinned. “Even you can’t deny that can only be the work of true masterminds!”
“Or experienced hot air balloon pilots… Anyway,” Pikachu shook his head “the hand was shock-proof so they just stood there, did their motto, and posed. Then they tried to float away but Ash, Serena, and Clemont called out their Pokemon, so Team Rocket called out Pumpkaboo and Inkay. During the fight some attacks knocked me loose and Frogadier caught me when I fell. Then Inkay got clobbered and Pumpkaboo was looking bad, so Jessie started shaking James real hard and shouting something at him. Then he threw another Poke Ball and out came… Celestia, wasn’t it?”
Twilight nodded, eager anticipation on her face.
“The Pokedex didn’t know what she was but she was Team Rocket’s Pokemon so I charged her. She was saying something – asking for orders, I think.”
“You think?” Twilight frowned.
“I wasn’t really listening to her, you know? Team Rocket attacks, Team Rocket sends out Pokemon, I fight their Pokemon, and eventually they go flying over the horizon.” Pikachu shrugged. “The faces change, but the routine never does. I just thought they’d just bumbled into something rare this time and I don’t like being kidnapped over and over. So I charged.”
“…Go on.”
“She kept talking for a few seconds while I got closer so I hit her with Iron Tail before she could attack.”
“She’d hadn’t done anything… and you blindsided her?!”
“Half of James’ Pokemon have started out almost every battle by hurting him!” Pikachu defended himself. “Victreebel and Carnivine kept trying to eat him, Cacnea would always give him a great big hug with literal needle arms! They all attacked me and my friends sooner or later, so why should I have thought this new girl would do anything else?”
Twilight said nothing at all.
“Anyway… Iron Tail sent her sprawling, so we hit her while she was down, then she sent us sprawling with Psychic. Then we all teamed up to send Pumpkaboo and Celestia flying back into the balloon before my electricity popped and they all went ‘blasting off again’ right into the sky. And then we didn’t see each other for about a week. The end.” Pikachu nodded. “And that’s the story of the first time we met.”
Twilight’s eyelid twitched.
“You little yellow RAT!”
Pikachu suddenly found himself grabbed roughly between two hooves, hoisted to Twilight’s eye level, and then shaken about like a like rag doll.
“The princess of all Equestria was just standing there, doing NOTHING against you, and you decided to just BLINDSIDE HER?!” Twilight screamed in Pikachu’s face. “You attacked a pure, loving, wise INNOCENT for the crime of being captured by your enemies?! What kind of sick morality do you ponies have in this crazy world?!”
“Hey!” Ash stepped off the bed he’d been sitting on, watching the Pokemon “bonding”. “That’s enough! I don’t know what you guys are talking about but I’m not just going to let you hurt Pikachu like that!”
“AND YOU!” Twilight’s baleful gaze fell on Ash, even as she kept shaking Pikachu about. “You must have ordered him to do it! Or at least not told him to stop! How can you MANIACS possibly justify falling on total stranger with such insanely disproportionate force for no crime whatsoever?!”
“I’m… warning you…” Pikachu managed as his body jerked roughly about, looking queasy. “Let… me… go…”
“You don’t even know WHAT she was saying!” Twilight ignored him, continuing to shout and shake. “She could have been vowing never to submit to their orders! She could have been promising justice for her abduction! She didn’t make a single move towards you at all until you blasted her to her knees for NO REASON! You SOULLESS SAVAGES beat the living daylights of the greatest mare alive for NOTHING!”
“Alright, that’s it!” Ash pulled out a Poke Ball, but a wave of psychic force slapped it from his hands.
“I’M NOT FINISHED!” Twilight roared. “HOW DARE YOU?! HOW COULD YOU?! IF YOU HADN”T SAVED MY LIFE I’D… I’D…” Her teeth ground together.
What exactly she would have done will remain forever unknown, as it was at that exact moment Pikachu’s patience finally snapped.
Having been thoroughly rag-dolled and mostly ignored for more than a solid minute, the little electric mouse Pokemon had had enough. His bright red cheeks crackled with energy, and then he unleashed the electrical attack that Team Rocket and so many others had come to know and dread. The alicorn princess got a taste of a point-blank Thunderbolt.
“GAAAAAAAAAAH!”
There was a scream, then a localized explosion. Twilight and Pikachu went flying in opposite directions, both smacking hard into walls on the opposite sides of the small room. Twilight slumped down to the floor.
“Pikachu! Twilight! Are you guys okay?!” Ash managed, coughing and fanning at the smoke in his face.
Pikachu forced his way up onto wobbly legs, stubby arms pinwheeling in a frantic grasp for balance.
“I… told you…” he slurred dizzily, pointing at the blank wall directly in front of him. “Don’t… mess… with… urgh…”
Pikachu fell over onto his back and lay there.
“Pikachu!” Ash rushed over to his companion, cradling the electric mouse in his arms. “Are you alright, buddy?”
From the opposite end of the room came a low moan. As the smoke faded away, Twilight was slowly revealed. The purple princess lay there in a heap on her back, twitching and sparking at random. Her eyes were little more than dazed swirls.
“Ooooowwwww…”
“That was some game a truth or dare, wasn’t it?” Meowth was saying, the next morning.
“I didn’t think it was so bad,” Celestia replied, looking down at the little white Pokemon, now dressed in a yellow clown outfit complete with red rubber nose and blue wig for the rest of today. She giggled.
“Well maybe ya should look in a mirror, den!’ Meowth chortled right back at the alicorn’s newly-dyed hot pink fur and neon purple mane.
“I never knew Wobbuffet had it in him,” Celestia shook her head.
Both shuddered.
“Oh, stop complaining you two,” Jessie interrupted, pointing one gloved finger out of the balloon’s basket at a slight shimmer in the distance. “We’re already almost there!”
“Beautiful Lumiose City, here we come!” James cried out.
“Wobbuffet!”
Celestia and Meowth grabbed one another tight.
Can't you have Ash use his Aura powers so he can make it so either he is able to understand what Pokemon are saying or if he infuses Twilight and later Celestia with his Aura that they can speak human language?
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No, that isn't something he can just do.
Pikachu, what did I JUST get done telling you what NOT to do yesterday? Hint: It was something you JUST DID!
Still, this chapter made me go SQUEE!
Nice to see Celestia and Meowth bonding. They’re faring better than the two not so far away... I guess Twilight, Pikachu and co will figure out sooner or later that if Celestia joined the TR trio in trying to destroy the pokeball factory, she possibly did it for a serious and valid reason...
Looks like the city Luna is approaching will be Lumiose. The next Ash and co / TR team meeting is going to be very interesting.
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Well, Twilight is psychic, so theoretically she'll be able to pick up telepathy at some point (I hope).
Not sure about Celestia, though, since Twilight's typing makes me think she's fire/fairy instead of the fire/psychic I was expecting.
Not sure why Twilight automatically assumes Team Rocket are masterminds despite informed opinions to the contrary... I mean, I GET the "Celestia wouldn't be subdued or corrupted" angle, but wouldn't the more likely scenario be either a REVERSE corruption or a banding against a greater threat? Still not entirely sure which is the case here... a mix perhaps?
That title sure fit well, a real dialogue of the deaf.
And Pikachu, you done goof.
*Looks on Dictionary.com* noun 1. a stupid person; fool; dunce. Oh!
What the hell happened during this game of truth or dare.
This was a really great chapter. Kind of nice o pick it up where team rocket left off with the nice little camping experience. On another note I think you may be the first fanfic writer to do Team Rocket justice.
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Because Twilight does believe Pikachu when he says Team Rocket are bad people doing bad things and is known for making blindly irrational leaps in logic when the subject is her mentor?
Wobuffet shouldve really been wearing a Marigold on his head.
Meanwhile, while Tam Rocket is acting heroic, Ash and crew are acting the villains?
Who used Trick Room when we wernt looking? Oh, Lysandra did.
Something tells me that Ash (or anyone in this world) is not used to Pokemon having opinions of their own.
Welp, at least it appears that Twilight has a more accurate idea of what happened.
I hope.
And good work subverting everyone's expectations. Alicorn Rapidash? Lecture of Doom?
Nope: Twilight gets a taste of Pika-power!
THANK YOU!
Hmm I'm rather curious as to what Mon was in that dark ball if it wasn't Luna. Better still i wonder what will happen when all three of the princesses meet up again. Celestia with Team Rocket, Twilight with Team Ash, and Luna with her own team of 'I beat the crap out of them so they are mine now' pokemon.
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Considering that they have a Knight Templar Marefoal who can't comprehend that her mentor cannot be perfect because of how deluded she is, I would not be surprised if their morality drops a bit.
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That is the opposite of true, Ash asks for opinions from Pikachu and other Pokémon all the time. Now if you were talking about someone like Giovanni, then yeah, sure.
I get that Team Rocket is goofy and likable, but Ash is neither the villain nor the aggressor in their "relationship". If they weren't ineffectual morons their behavior would profoundly creepy.
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Seems like a lot of people despise and blame Ash... even if he is quite far from bad.
I, for one, am sure Twilight will swiftly warm up to him and his companions after the situation gets clearer.
Well, Twilight didn't end up pasting Ash and co., but that's alright. At least she more or less knows what happened now. Still don't expect her, Celestia, or Luna to tolerate being asked or forced to fight one another. Not unless a dark ball comes into play of course. I'm really looking forward to the alicorn reunion though! Great chapter.
I'm really liking this fic, it gets me thinking.
Goes to show how dickish pokemon would appear to those outside of their reality. Just up and attacking each other for no apparent reason. I don't know how old Ash is now, seeing how I've not watched a single episode of Pokemon in like 10 years or something, I have however played the games here and there, so I'm not completely bereft of knowledge. Regardless I'm pretty sure he'd be old enough to realize it's wrong to try and stuff a 'pokemon' that he knew in fact was not a pokemon back into the ball. But eh, whatever lmao.
As for Team Rocket, you've portrayed them rather well. Not so sure about Giovanni, he seems a little too nice as opposed to what I remember, but yeah, it's been a while. I'm particularly interested in what you're going to do with Luna. She's often portrayed as some no nonsense warrior. My kinda person.
Just, uhhh... Some clarification would be nice. You mentioned the flower pokemon and that tall dude, I'm assuming this is based in the Diamond and Pearl timeline then?
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Well, as for Giovanni, all we've really seen from him so far is that he detests the Dark Balls and is fairly ruthless when it comes to dealing with his henchmen. And all of that can easily fit him, if you think about it. His uncaring attitude towards the fate of his henchmen is pretty self explanatory, and the thing with the Dark balls could be about a simple waste of resources, since we know now that it gives a power boost at the cost of very quickly killing the pokemon it boosts. He has no interest in using them since they destroy valuable property, but they're too powerful to be left in the hands of his rivals, so they got to go. He's basically doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons.
At least, that's the way it seems to me.
If you think about the skills Team Rocket has shown over the years, it's a suprice they haven't won yet. I mean they can be quite witty if they want, are masters in engineering and building of quite some impressive machines, masters of disguise, somehow, and have a sturdiness and pain tolerance beyond any elite soldiers.
Only explanation for their many defeats is, they are truly some masterminds with higher plans which only get revealed in the last season of the anime.
Twilight's definitely overreacting, but she's prone to panicking in canon already. Still, I hope her behavior doesn't result in her being sent back to Oak, because she's being pretty unreasonable right now.
The conclusion of Celestia working for Team Rocket because she was so viciously attacked is out in the open now, but something tells me Twilight's not in exactly the right state to grasp it.
Also, that game of Truth of Dare must have been really something. Wobbuffet! (And it makes me happy to see Celestia and Meowth developing kinship over something. Hehe.)
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from chapter 2
Type identified: Fire. Pokemon classified: Fairy/Fire type.
Celly is Fairy/Fire
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Twilight's tendency to panic is overplayed in canon (by which I mean that it's used so often, and so cheaply, as to overwhelm rather than add dimension to her other traits, and to become annoying rather than endearing in itself), and it is only ever played for laughs rather than presented as an obstacle for her to confront, never mind overcome. Overplaying this trait goes a long way to making the character objectively unlikeable, and does her a disservice.
All of the above is in full evidence here.
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I will admit I'm hoping she calms down after that Thunderbolt. Having this go on all the way to the confrontation would get rather annoying.
I don't think it's out of character for the situation - she's stranded her mentor in a strange world, who now has fallen into the hold of criminals - but it does make her rather unlikeable. And if this behavior continues - well, Ash can't keep her around if she keeps attacking him and his partners.
Twilight's the Princess of Friendship. I do hope we see more of that and less of the neurotic student.
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So it does. It's been so long since I read the first chapters I had totally forgotten about that, lol. For some reason I had it in my head that the alicorns would all pick up a psychic typing because of their extreme magical power, and their secondary type would be their personal area of expertise.
Twilight was kind of insufferable, but the exchange between her and Pikachu was otherwise entertaining. Even our lovable mascot has his limits
8324630
I think the problem the author will run into is the four moves limit. I haven't watched the show in years so the show might not have that limit, but I was more familiar with the games. Even then the last official game I've played was Emerald, but I have played Uranium and Insurgence.
Near as I can tell Celestia's moveset is
Physic, Solar Beam
Fly, Flamethrower
8324626
Even in the situation you describe, I think the more in-character* reaction would be self-recrimination and perhaps manic resolve to fix things, rather than the antics we're getting. Something that should have registered by now is that she is at least a but-for cause of the current situation, if not a proximate cause.
* Just putting it out there that you introduced this term, not I.
8324658
She used Hyper Beam in the fight against pikachu, right at the end when she actually knocked him and Ash out. She used Protect a couple times in that fight as well.
I haven't actually watched the show since it first came out, so I really don't know if it follows the same limitations as the game, but it seems like in this story, at least, the four move limit isn't in effect.
8324635
I am sure being zapped brought her back to her senses. Nothing equals a Thunderbolt attack to calm one's mind!
Now we know 3 attacks for Twilight : Psy Beam, Shout and Shake!
8324658
In the show they tend to ignore the four moves limit thing, I don't see any reason this author won't do the same. In fact I think he's already ignored it.
You've just been saving up these chapters to release in sequence huh? Also, Twilight needs a hug. Her second mom is in the hands of supposed "masterminds" and has no one to put some sense into her. Luna plz help.
8324522
X and Y timeline.
8324630
She's Fairy/Fire, Luna has a Dark/??? type, and Twlight's type has yet to be revealed.
You're gonna have to put a sex tag on this fic if Twilight keeps fellating Celestia like that.
8324307
Still seems a bit OOC to me, but I suppose it isn't SO much as to ruin the joke...
8324834
I thought Twilight was already revealed to be fairy/psychic? Since, you know, it straight out says in "New Faces",
8325249
Whoops, forgot I already did that. Good thing it wasn't a plot point or anything.
8325390
lol. I know that feel, brah.
the ship name for Pikachu and Twilight is twilighting
Twilight's a nincompoop. A brilliant, all-powerful nincompoop.
8324307
Frankly, I think this is tame for her. I would expect her to make the logical leap that Celestia wouldn't willingly work with someone bad, so Ash and Pikachu must be the crooks because it will be a lot easier for her to believe that she was tricked rather than Celestia. Oh well, I guess that's a job for next chapter when she finds out they not just blindly attacked Celestia, but actively worked against her.
Also, don't listen to the idiots trying to claim Twilight won't flip out like this. It is a core part of her character as has been shown repeatedly in the show, and if anything she's been unreasonably calm about the situation given how much stress she is under. Also, I don't know if any of the snake Pokemon are around because it's been eons since I payed attention to Pokemon (gen 2 specifically), but Twilight's snake phobia will definitely kick in if she sees something like Arbok.
8325568
Yeah, she really is.
That's not fair. They are VERY good at being boobs. Total failures at being anything else, but excellent at being boobs.
I predict that once Twilight learns from Celestia herself, that she is willingly traveling with Jessie James, and Meowth that she will go Lesson Zero V2.0
"Lesson i", maybe?
This was a great read so far, looking forward to the next chapter.
When you stop to think about it, they're the only ones that possibly could...
Got that right Pikachu!
Wobbuffet is. Wobbuffet was. And Wobbuffet will always be, a total badass
I wonder what happened to Cassidy and Baboon?
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