Rarity Gets Caught

by lord_steak

36 - Trouble Grows in the Wild

{The search party is on its way.}

“Is that the town?” asked Rainbow Dash, flying next to Spitfire and Fleetfoot.

The captain checked against a map mounted to her wrist, then looked at the large city to the northwest, and the not as large city in the craggy foothills north-northeast of them, then back at the smallish town west-southwest of them. With a grin, Spitfire replied, “Yep. That’s it. Sandgem. Spread out and prepare thundercloud trails on my mark!”

Dash turned to her and said, “Yes, Ma’am, but may I do one thing first? The one thing that’ll make sure she knows it’s me up here?”

Spitfire chuckled. “Never miss a chance to showboat with permission, huh, Crash?”

“Just being pragmatic, ma’am!”

Fleetfoot belly-laughed, in spite of the high-speed flight. “‘Pragmatic?’ You, Crash??”

Rainbow offered no reply but a sour face. Spitfire rolled her eyes at them both, and said, “If you really think it’ll work. You fan to the south! Flatfoot, fan north! I’ll fly up the middle! Clipper, Dizzy, and that soldier should be smart enough to fill the gaps! Go, Crash!”

“Yes Ma’am!”

Passing over Sandgem Town, Rainbow Dash rose at a sharp angle while Spitfire and Fleetfoot continued forward. After climbing close to a kilometre, Dash tucked her wings into a fast dive, aiming straight for Twinleaf Town. A few seconds later, with three hard flaps, the air in front of her distorted, then broke, ricocheting her back toward the stars as a prismatic ring burst from the point of breaking, spreading faster than any of them could fly and maintaining altitude perfectly. A moment later Dash rejoined her captain as a rainbow streaked out from behind her.

“Now!” shouted Spitfire.

The skies over southwestern-most Sinnoh saw the strangest rainbow on record that hour, followed by a trio of linear thunderclouds clawing their way across the sky in a generally westward direction, followed by three more, though one dumped rain rather than sparking, and following up the rear was a line of cumulus clouds far too wide and chipper to be a jetliner’s trail, accompanied by a sparkling dark indigo streak with a bright purple and bright pink stripe. The people watched as the phenomenon exited Sinnoh to the south and west, over the lands between them and Kanto.

---

{How shall you deal with a mass of violent birds?}

Staraptors edged closer as the cawing suddenly came from all of them. Jittering in terror, Fearow burst, “What do we do!?”

“A good, strong dose of unicorn magic right about now, please?!” Keldeo begged, forced stiffly upright and unblinking with a Staraptor’s face too close to his own to focus his vision on it effectively.

With a pained gasp, Rarity answered, “I...ow, can’t. Not with a concussion. They warned us all when we were little foals, just old enough to begin playing sports: ‘Whatever you do, do not use much magic if you have a concussion; the damage could be permanent.’”

“Possible permanent physical or mental ailments, versus certain death!?” Keldeo squawked incredulously. “Are you seriously still weighing this?!”

“It’s not that—ow!!” Rarity yipped as the Staraptor prodding at her leg went for a full peck. Her horn charged as she turned to her pesterer with an unladylike glower. “Damn you!!”

Rarity agonised verbally as a wide blue ray blasted the head of that Staraptor, leaving only a smoldering stump in its place a second later. The other Staraptors fell silent in unison, watching their comrade’s decapitated body tumble unceremoniously into the muck from Rapidash’s back. Rarity clenched her head, whimpering pathetically. Keldeo turned quickly and stomped, sending a stone spike out of the ground into the central of the three Staraptors blocking his path. The bird left the ground and flopped back to the mud out cold, but still breathing. Motioning urgently, Keldeo shouted, “Run, dammit!!”

He charged through the opening. Sparks surrounded Rapidash as he went from still to full canter with just a step, barreling through the Staraptor blocking them on the right. Fearow simply flew over the one on the left. Then those still conscious all cawed at once, a jarring shriek with the ruffling gust of several hundred birds taking off all together. Rarity moaned on the edge of tears with a series of sharp gasps, clinging to her head with her eyes clamped shut. Fearow edged near hyperventilating, and whimpered to herself, “What would Sally do, in this mess? I...I don’t know....”

“This is hardly the time to contemplate others’ choices!” Keldeo yelled as several Staraptors dove at him, slashing away with their beak with swallow-tailed strikes. While gritting his teeth through it all, after a few seconds he had bloody cuts on his sides, back, chest, and cheeks. Keldeo popped another with the stone spike, leaving that Staraptor hanging in the air as its lift petered out. In its sudden departure from the conscious world, that Staraptor barred the aerial path for others of its kind, causing a twenty-eight Staraptor pile-up. The group, however, barely looked like it had thinned at all. Keldeo grouched, “Friggin’ hate flyers....”

“Sweetheart, we need you to call upon the gemstones,” Rapidash urged. Rarity opened her eyes, wincing terribly. She yelped, and hung onto his back with deep breaths. “Please....”

Clenching her jaw, Rarity focused the power in her horn. She shrieked bloody murder as she cast the spell, firing barrage after of barrage of sharp quartz crystals out of the muck and into the conglomeration of bird Pokémon assailing them. The entire flock dropped; several were skewered. Fearow gasped at the sight, turning blue in the face and staring at Rarity in terror. Rarity, however, cried tears of physical pain, clutching her throbbing head with both forelimbs and moaning, “It hurts...darling, it hurts so bad...!”

“Hold tough, baby doll; we’re covering ground much quicker now!” Rapidash said soothingly, though worry still soaked his undertones.

Eleven streams crossed, they saw ahead of them what looked like a cloud coming out of the marsh, holding its position dead ahead of them. Slowly it began to approach while they leapt over the twelfth channel, flanked by rows of Staraptors, blocking any significant lateral movement. Keldeo looked back and yelled, “A huge wave of Staraptors is approaching...!!”

Rapidash turned toward Rarity, who still was in tears. He pressed, “Baby, we need you to cast that spell again...!”

Rarity looked up, still out of breath and holding her head. At the front of the murmuration was a large, brown Staraptor with an ill-favoured glint in its eye. The cawing began anew. Keldeo barked, “Do it! Do it, Rarity!! Do it now!!!”

Yipping in pain, Rarity flopped helplessly onto Rapidash’s back. She whimpered, “I...I’m sorry...it hurts too much....”

Rapidash sighed. Solemnly he began, “We are going to die here if you can’t use that, dear.”

“I...I know...I see them...please forgive me,” Rarity sobbed.

“Then,” Rapidash said sadly, “since this is all the further we’re getting, let me throw properness and waiting out the window. Let me say this: Rarity...I love you.”

Redness overtook her face as she sat bolt upright, both hooves moving from covering the top of her head to covering her mouth with a sharp gasp. Emotional tears rolled down her face as she squeaked, “I...love you too....”

Suddenly, a burst came out of the northeastern sky that made everything stop in their tracks or flight. A thick prismatic wave passed overhead, walloping the ground with a strange crystalline ringing noise and a low rumble. Keldeo blurted, “What in the...??”

“Rainbow Dash?!” Rarity cried with sudden hope. “Dashie, you’re close!?!”

Rapidash stared in disbelief, and absentmindedly asked, “‘Rainbow Dash?’”

“She’s one of my best friends! She’s near...she’s looking for me! Twilight and the others have to be close, too!” Rarity rejoiced, a smile finally returning to her face. She fired a beacon into the air, but it collapsed after a few seconds.

“Um, dear?” Rapidash began, gesturing toward the murmuration of Staraptors, all of which had turned their gazes back toward the four.

Rarity pulled Rapidash’s muzzle to her for a kiss. She said, “You mean it when you say you love me?”

The Staraptors began their way as the cawing resumed. Rapidash nodded slowly, sadly saying, “...yes.”

She released his muzzle as she looked at the coming wave. Her horn began to glow as she said with growing sternness, “And my friends are close, and the only way to live is to get past these birds?”

“Yeah,” answer Rapidash, his tone and shakiness to his stance both of feeling totally overwhelmed and despairing.

Blood ran from Rarity’s eyes, a steady trickle from both inside corners as the aura on her horn turned harsh. Her eyes went out of focus as she started, “Then...”

Keldeo looked back in shock as Rarity’s aura took on a second layer and the blood started from the outside corners of her eyes. “...it...”

Fearow nervously tittered, her entire face and neck had gone pale. Rarity’s ears began to bleed, too, while her horn began spitting blue sparks, and involuntarily levitating. “...is...”

The forward Staraptor screamed sadistic triumph, echoed by the rest of the murmuration as they accelerated. A tertiary aura manifest about Rarity horn; the six streams of blood running down her head thickened and ran faster as she hollered, “...ON!!!”

Rarity continued screaming as the ground below burst, hurling crystals of many different shapes, sizes, and colours at the Staraptors above. Those flanking the four broke off their coverage while Staraptor after Staraptor fell out of the murmuration, piling up on the ground. Few of those were breathing.

---

{It’s a wonder she saw it at all at that distance.}

Rainbow Dash squinted as she looked to the west-southwest. Then her eyes lit up. “Captain, I think I see her!”

“You see her for sure, or you just think you do?” Spitfire replied.

Rainbow continued staring at the same point. “It looked like her cutie mark in a circle, projected in the sky for a few seconds!”

“Where at, Crash?”

Dash gestured towards somewhere indeterminate to others, close not far below the horizon. She said, “Right about there, in front of those mountains, where the trees look low, or maybe just grasses and not trees!”

Spitfire squinted her eyes, frowned, then yelled at Dash, “Rookie, how far away do you think that is!?”

Sheepishly, Dash grimaced and answered, “Um, I think it’s, uh, at least fifty klicks?”

“I’d say at least seventy-five, Crash!” Fleetfoot chimed in. “You really think you could see something like a cutie mark beacon at that distance? Gimme a break!”

Spitfire spat, “You can head that way to look if you want, Crash, but I’m holding my course! Don’t veer so wide that it takes everypony else to fill the hole!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Dash answered, and adjusted her trajectory a touch to the south.

---

{Still not out of this mess....}

With thick red streams coming from her eyes and ears, Rarity shook for a moment before falling limp onto Rapidash’s back, breathlessly murmuring, “...putain d’enfer...ma tête....”

Rapidash screamed, “Rarity!? RARITYYY!!!”

“No time for that! Move!!” Keldeo yelled as what remained of the murmuration shrieked in fury, charging headlong at them. He sidestepped the brown Staraptor’s wing attack and called another rocky spike which dropped the next inbound enemy, forcing the murmuration behind it to flow different directions around. Rapidash frantically weaved through attack attempts, his vision clouded by tears of fear. The brown Staraptor pulled a tight turn, barreling for Keldeo with the rest of the murmuration swirling just behind.

Fearow flapped higher, above the mass of unfriendly Pokémon, muttering over and over, “Sally, I don’t know what to do...Sally, what would you do...?”

The brown Staraptor glowed yellow, brighter until all definition and shading on it was no longer distinguished from one another. Keldeo looked back in time to see the attack upon him. Yelping, he crashed and tumbled through the marsh grasses, disappearing from sight as the rest of the murmuration slashed the tops of the grasses and cattails. On shaky legs, Keldeo pushed himself to his feet. He gritted his reddened teeth, both eyes bloodshot and twitching. A line the length of his right side had no fur left, exposing a puce bruise the whole way. He spat a red glob. He muttered, “Goddamn flyers....”

“We’re not getting out of here, are we?” Rapidash sighed as he stopped to help Keldeo stand upright and stable. Keldeo did not even look at Rapidash; he continued his defiant snarl at the inbound wave of many thousand Staraptors. Rapidash looked back at Rarity’s unconscious body, then the closing murmuration, and closed his eyes with a sigh and resolute frown.

{One has chosen to go no further.}

A scream sounded from above them. Rapidash opened his eyes in time to see Fearow dive at the brown Staraptor, striking with her wings that for a moment appeared to be coated in iron. The brown Staraptor crashed into the muck, rolled over twice, then popped back into the air, snarling. Fearow flew after the brown Staraptor, attempting to lock talons and wrestle it to the ground. The other Staraptors moved in on them as she yelled, “Go on without me! I can’t do this without Sally!”

Rapidash began, “But—”

“Sally was my everything! She—” was all the more Fearow got out before the other Staraptors were all over her. Screeching ensued.

Keldeo started for the edge of the trees, slower to get up to speed, and slower at his injured top speed. Rapidash followed him as the shrieks halted. Turning to look, they saw the gathered Pokémon centred around the brown Staraptor, where their heads were throwing tan feathers into the air. Then up came small strips of flesh, tossed just enough to send those tidbits down their gullets. Keldeo and Rapidash turned away quickly, and hastened themselves all the more. In under a minute, only a haphazardly strewn pile of tan and white feathers and a somewhat bloodied avian skeleton with a long pink bill remained where the Staraptors had feasted. The murmuration took to the air again, pursuing Keldeo, Rapidash, and the unconscious Rarity on Rapidash’s back. Hopping over another channel, Rapidash suffered himself a quick glance behind, and fearfully called out, “They’re still hungry!!”

“I noticed!” Keldeo answered. “But they’re too late; we’re gonna make it!”

One channel and a few scores of metres remained between them and the tree line. They made the leap with no difficulty and pressed hard for the forest while the murmuration of Staraptors was gaining on them quickly. They crashed through the forest edge’s underbrush. A few seconds later, Staraptors charged in en masse. Keldeo motioned toward a run that flowed into the last channel they jumped over. The Staraptors billowed around the trees to change course and maintain their pursuit. Underbrush around the stream thickened, where Keldeo and Rapidash jumped in. But before the Staraptors began shredding the low foliage, Keldeo pulled Rapidash to a small cave entrance abutted against the stream, one that deepened inwardly. The two went in just far enough to be out of sight from the entrance. Rapidash whispered, “How long do you think before they give up?”

“To be safe, fifteen minutes,” Keldeo answered. Above them buzzed the characteristic trilling screech of a Zubat. Five descended at them, trying to box them against the wall. Keldeo hit part of the cave floor near the entrance with his Secret Sword, kicking up sand and cutting the existing rill closer to the stream. He snarled at the Zubats, “You shut your noise, or I will flood this cave!”

All five Zubats looked at each other nervously for a moment before fluttering back into the depths. Keldeo breathed a sigh of relief and fatigue. The two silently waited, watching the entrance anxiously while the noise of Staraptors echoed from outside. The cawing dwindled bit by bit, and the cave fell silent again, save for some Zubats from the dark, somewhere further inside. For a few minutes longer they waited. With a mutual nod, Keldeo and Rapidash tiptoed to the cave entrance, peering out. Where there had been cattails, several colours of hydrangeas, horsetail rush, nettles, and a great many other species of plants found in or near water, now lay a hacked-to-bits mash of green matter. Even the trees had suffered some loss of bark, cuts to their wood, and losses of their smaller branches. The scene was as though a colossus had come through with a proportionately-sized weed whacker. Not a Staraptor was left in sight. Keldeo stood out of breath, and wincing while holding his right side. He spat out a partially bloody gob, then gestured northward.

{So many are angry when they grieve, as though it were a mask to cover the sadness.}

Shortly after noon, Keldeo and Rapidash happened upon a berry patch. Most of them were yellow with dark orange spots, and pear-shaped. Many of the others were blue with tiny divots all over their surface. A few others were much smaller red berries with orange bottoms. Both of them took to the yellow berries first, then the red ones. Keldeo swallowed a mouthful, looked over at Rarity with a frown, and sighed while shaking his head slowly. Rapidash irritably asked, “What?!”

Keldeo sighed again, then answered, “Can’t believe what we’re doing, going through so much trouble over that.”

“She bothers you that much, huh?” Rapidash snapped.

Keldeo was still frowning. “Your girlfriend’s a mass murderer, Rapidash! Just knocking out those Staraptors would have been more than enough; she ran them through with her crystal attack! She all-but put them on spits, readied for a rotisserie! What am I supposed to say to that? Sure, she bought us some time, but she also enraged the Staraptors! I bet you anything that if she hadn’t killed so many of them, the others wouldn’t have pursued us with such fervor! And then Fearow died for her, too! That makes two who have sacrificed their lives for her in as many days, and I can’t tell if she has any appreciation for their generosity or not! If it weren’t for trying to prevent greater trouble, I would have been content to leave her to her fate, and not gotten involved! You’ve seen her in battle. Except for her, it’s not a Pokémon battle; it’s combat. It’s war. She kills some of the best-trained Pokémon, and some of the strongest out in the wild. And she’s not even the strongest of her kind! Her power doesn’t amount to jack against either of their princesses that have been here! If that’s what their princesses are like, what’ll happen if their king stops by? A full-scale war with the ponies would be disastrous for the world; you know that, right?”

Rapidash stood back up, still carrying the unconscious Rarity. He looked Keldeo straight in the eye, and with a quietly angry expression and tone said, “You’re bitching about it, after she gave the ‘good, strong dose of unicorn magic’ that you asked of her? Do we even know if she had full control, what with the concussion and all?! Also, Rarity will be very, very sad when she learns Fearow basically committed suicide to draw them off. Aengus wasn’t looking to die when he protected her; Fearow was.”

Keldeo matched Rapidash’s expression and tone. “Be those as they may, do you deny the danger posed by the rest of her ilk?”

“I suppose I really can’t, can I?” Rapidash spat. Scowling, he growled, “So that’s all this is to you? Stopping a war before it begins?”

“Yes! That’s it exactly! There’s already been plenty of wanton destruction and loss of life on their account; let’s not give them reason to do so intentionally, even though I fear we may already be too late,” Keldeo grouched. He scoffed, then continued, “I have to remind myself that most common Pokémon have no idea what we so-called ‘Legendary’ and ‘Mythical’ Pokémon do, how much effort we put into keeping the peace and maintaining balance. Sure, sometimes we butt heads, and things go awry, but it’s nothing like these ponies. You wondered earlier how different things would be, had the ponies and the humans talked? I wonder that, too. This is absurdity, what all fell out from their lack of communication. Both saw the other do something they thought was unacceptable and were swift in thinking the other as savages, and it all went to hell. That’s the kind of crap we’re supposed to prevent, those of us who are unique. Of course, then the savage one shows up, and it all goes to hell again, but by a different route.”

Rapidash grunted, looking away as he slowly shook his head. “Whatever you say. I just want to keep her safe, get her home, and get out of this otherwise-unending charade. Been questioning why the world has such a system going for awhile, and Rarity’s only made me question it all the more. I intend to leave with her. This existence of battling...I don’t know if it really ever was fun.”

Keldeo nodded. Rapidash turned back toward him with a frown, but relented when he saw the soft, understanding smile from Keldeo, who said, “I should like to think you are right. I also should like to think that we could still become good friends, you and I. You’re wiser than most Pokémon your age.”

“Sounds like you have a caveat waiting,” Rapidash answered with an expectant smirk.

Keldeo shrugged with a similar expression. Snorting, he said, “Were you not such a sucker for a pretty face....”

Rolling his eyes, Rapidash retorted, “You can thank her for helping me come to those conclusions.”

“Well then,” Keldeo said appreciatively, “I might. Looks like she indeed has done some good in her time here.”

A loud boom and bright flash interrupted them. Through the leaves above, almost directly overhead, they saw a rainbow ring spread out to a sound likened to warping metal while the trees bowed, bent, and danced in the sudden wind. Rarity showed no reaction whatsoever as the dust blasted away from them and Rapidash hollered in alarm, “Jesus Christ!! That was right over us!!”

Keldeo shook out his head and rubbed at his ears, blinking at Rapidash. His eyes widened with a slight gasp in understanding of what was said. With sudden energy and anticipatory excitement, he quickly glanced around himself and the surrounding area. There was no one and no-mon else around. Disappointment took over the excitement just as quick as it had come. Cocking his head to the left, Keldeo asked, “‘Jesus Christ?’”

“It’s a human expression for feeling a sudden, strong emotion, especially fear, surprise, or anger,” explained Rapidash. “Aengus was quite fond of using it.”

Keldeo pulled his lips taut and looked away, raising one hoof to his forehead slowly as he closed his eyes. He sighed in disappointment as his hoof slid down his face before returning to the ground, looked Rapidash in the eye, and said matter-of-factly, “If you say so. We’re not far from Sinnoh at this point. Keep checking on her from time to time, and we’ll go at a pace that will make decent time, but should not draw any undue attention, especially with the marsh behind us. We should reach Lake Verity a little before nightfall.”

“Alright. Lead on,” Rapidash said. He looked back at Rarity. The blood had stopped running from her eyes and ears awhile ago, but there was no way to know when. Stains and scabs ran along the fur on her face where it had ran and dripped from her. Her breathing had remained at the same lazy pace since passing out. Nuzzling her as best as he could from craning his neck as far as it could go, he whispered, “Hang on, my love. We’ll be home soon.”

---

{They’re so close....}

Keldeo had been correct on all accounts. They did not run afoul of anything out of the ordinary or their ability to handle, even yoked with an unconscious pony dangling from Rapidash’s back. They came to a clearing with tall grass on the southwestern shore of Lake Verity about fifteen minutes before dusk. Both took a moment to get a drink after setting Rarity down, obscuring her behind the trees. As they felt refreshed, a whoosh sounded above them. Both quickly slipped back to the trees as seven more went in the same way in succession. Rapidash harshly whispered, “What was that?!”

“I don’t know,” Keldeo said. “The sky’s just been weird all damn day: crackling lines of miniature storm clouds, that rainbow ring-blast-thing over and over...I just don’t get it.”

“Rarity said something when we saw the first one in the marsh,” Rapidash said. “I guess you didn’t hear her.”

Keldeo frowned and said, “No. I didn’t.”

Rapidash said, “She said it was one of her best friends, named ‘Rainbow Dash,’ that was doing that. She said it means her friends are looking for her.”

Keldeo raised both his eyebrows. “Oh! I did see the one that calls herself Rainbow Dash when I listened to the ponies before heading out. She has wings, but no horn. Rainbow mane and tail, sky blue coat. I wonder how she does that...whatever-it’s-called.”

“Do you think she saw the signal Rarity put up?” Rapidash asked.

Keldeo sighed and said, “Not likely. I doubt she would’ve done it five more times if she had.”

---

“We had to be close...we just had to be,” Twilight sighed miserably as she touched down on the southeastern side of Lake Verity, a short walk away from a patch of tall grass.

Dash pulled her into a side-hug with a nod and sigh, muttering, “I know, Twi. I know. I just don’t know why she didn’t answer after the first time.”

“If that was really what you saw, Crash,” Fleetfoot said snarkily, rolling her eyes as she walked by, carrying some tent poles.

“I’m telling you, Flatfoot, I did!!” Rainbow insisted angrily.

“Enough, you two!” Soarin’ ordered, setting down a stake mallet to approach. “We don’t have time for arguing among ourselves, and I certainly don’t want to hear it! You’re both professionals; act like it!!”

“Yes, sir...,” Dash said unhappily. Fleetfoot rolled her eyes and started to walk away.

“He gave you an order, Flatfoot!” Spitfire yelled, suddenly blocking Fleetfoot’s path. Still hovering, Spitfire crossed her forelimbs while Soarin’ tapped the ground as one whose patience was all-but spent. When Fleetfoot frowned and hesitated, Spitfire’s voice dropped in volume, but as much as it quieted, it became more threatening. Ignoring certain grammatical rules, she growled, “Now you listen up and you listen good. I’ve been pretty tolerant of your snide comments, backhoofed compliments, and passive-aggressive remarks, because of your talents. Your skills have been a credit to the squad. But if you cannot follow a simple order from my first officer and obey the chain-of-command like everypony else, you have no place and no right to be my second officer! Do I make myself clear!?”

“Yes, ma’am,” answered Fleetfoot, standing at attention with a few sweat drops appearing on her forehead.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Yes ma’am!!”

Prodding her in the chest, Spitfire finished, “Good. And don’t you forget it. We will not be revisiting this conversation.”

During all that, Twilight had shrunk away, appearing downright uncomfortable and uneasy with the loud discipline. She felt a tapping on her shoulder, and turned to see a small levitating Pokémon there: pale cadet blue, mostly humanoid, two long tails that ended in a three-prong blade-like shape reminiscent of a ranseur’s or partisan’s head with an embedded red gemstone, and a mostly pink head with four ear-like projections issuing from the sides, also with a red gemstone set like a third eye. Twilight sighed sadly, both accepting and returning an offered hug from this Pokémon. She said, “Thanks, Mesprit. I’m glad you don’t hate us, like so many of the humans do.”

Mesprit patted Twilight on the top of her head affectionately and nodded slowly. Then Mesprit set one paw on the tip of Twilight’s nose, holding it there for a moment. Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and Soarin’ watched on for a good minute or two, before Dash asked, “Uh, Twilight, what’s—”

“Shh,” Twilight interrupted, sounding much calmer. A moment later Mesprit took its paw from Twilight’s nose, and deeply bowed. Twilight returned the gesture. She turned to her fellow ponies and said, “Mesprit’s the ‘Being of Emotion’ in this world. She...he, not sure which, doesn’t have any animosity toward us, like so many others here do. Just was trying to remove my anxiety and worry.”

“Um, Your Highness, was that wise?” Soarin’ asked. “I heard a few of the humans talking while we were still searching for Miss Lulamoon. They said to not touch Mesprit, because you’ll lose all of your emotions if you do.”

“I’ve also heard some of the myths floating around Sinnoh. But if touching Mesprit would’ve caused a pony to lose all emotion three days later like it’s said, Fluttershy and I would both have been totally devoid of emotion last week. Nothing of the sort befell either of us,” Twilight answered. “Mesprit just wanted to help, and knew I couldn’t focus properly if I were still wrapped around the axle.”

Twilight walked over to a sandy spot beside the lake. Sweeping it with her magic, she leveled a spot, and quickly drew a complex magic circle, landing in the middle. Rainbow blinked, and said, “Twi, this doesn’t match the one Sunburst showed you.”

“That’s because it’s a different circle,” Twilight said with a self-satisfied grin. “His circle was one to boost the range, enough to cover the whole world. This circle, however, does allow some increase in how far a divination spell goes, but is much more focused on pinpointing an exact answer from such spells.”

Twilight’s horn glowed, as did the circle around her. She lifted off the ground, but not from her wings. The magenta glow sloughed off the sand sketch bit by bit, flowing up into Twilight’s tail, issuing across her body up to her horn. Then a beam fired into the sky, where it burst into an expanding ring.

---

Keldeo and Rapidash both gasped as they saw a magenta wave sweep across the sky over them, with well-defined curvature. Wide-eyed, Rapidash blurted, “That’s close....”

“Damn close,” Keldeo said. “I saw the other side of the ring.”

“Yeah,” Rapidash answered.

The two hunkered down behind the trees, fairly close to the unconscious Rarity. Keldeo commanded, “Keep your eyes peeled, and prepare for combat, not battle. I sure hope that was Princess Twilight doing that thing again, but if not...should anything else come for her, we take it out immediately.”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Rapidash spat, scowling in the direction of the magenta ring’s epicentre.

---

Twilight gasped in shock and delight, a wide smile breaking over her face. She flitted upward, beaming and cheerfully ordering, “Everypony, with me, right now!”

While they obeyed, Rainbow asked with a smile, “How good is the good news?”

“She’s on the other side of the lake!” Twilight announced. Mesprit followed as the seven pegasi very suddenly took off, flying over the water behind their princess.

Author's Note:

How many of you guys have seen a full-sized murmuration of starlings doing their thing? It's kinda nuts, and really impressive, to watch:

Now...replace all those little bitty birds, with fully-evolved Staraptors, and imagine them doing such things as they bear down on you. That's what they were looking at and running from. Poor Fearow, unable to keep going without Sally....

Don't cast with a concussion, they say...it seems so. Yeouch. Sure hope Twi has some healing magic readied.

Looks like everypony/mon is about to come face-to-face, and then, back to The Great Marsh. They'll have to wait for morning to return; Starlight and Trixie have doubtlessly already gone to bed, and thus the return rod isn't powered. The natural questions, then, are how bad is the damage Rarity suffered? Can she recover? Can they even wake her up? Join us next time to find out!

Thanks for reading.

Comments

[Odeinoichus]

Oh yes, force someone with a concussion to use magic to 'attack' and expect them to be precise enough not to kill. Fucking Keldeo is completely useless at this point in understanding anything or even intelligently working things out, I'm pretty sure Rarity had no intention of killing anybody, but their magic doesn't work the same here and so Rarity was acting under false pretenses up until the match with Koga forced them to open their eyes, and then Paddy decided to drive the point home by twisting the knife in deep enough to hurt.

Characters who act all high and mighty because they aren't aware of a simple fact are still very much infuriating in their stupidity and rigid dogmatic beliefs in good and evil. Or intent versus ability/power. And to top it off Keldeo probably caused Rarity some permanent damage because of 'his' insistence to just do it. Yeah, really great and noble Pokémon there. Jaded little bastard refuses to see anything beyond his world view though so, can't really blame him. Except at this point in the story I do and I'm looking forward to Twilight chewing him out verbally for his fucked up ideals. Though judging by past chapters I highly doubt it'll happen the way I'm hoping.

Fearow was certainly unfortunate though, abandoned, introduced as a new character, just getting to the point where she might be able to continue, but instead she commits suicide... And it wasn't because of Rarity, but because she couldn't cope with life's hardships without her trainer to tell her what to do. Fucked up doesn't begin to cover her mental state. I'm sure Keldeo will use that as an excuse for his never ending hatred of humanity though.

For being The Justice Pokémon he sure has a very small minded view on how the world operates.

[Booster Spice]

Poor Fearow.

Loyal to the ultimate end.

[Emtu]

Kinda have to wonder how many "released" pokemon do something like that, just out of the grief of losing their trainer.

[Pause]

The pokemon world needs to suffer the biggest karma bomb every at this point.

[stick fight3]

Just putting it out there cause i can't remember if you mention it or not in the past chapters, but what happen to that fake alicorn trixie?

[Snow]

Y'know I half hope that Koga shows up just as they find her and Twilight just outright nopes it and snaps every bone in his body that won't kill him.

[lord_steak]

8244906
As an interesting note, the phrase "jaded little bastard" is one that's actually gone through m' head when writing him; I laughed out loud when I read it in your comment for that reason.
Next chapter's gonna have some tense talks; might not result precisely as you hope, but I wager you should be satisfied with how that one turns o..

8244912
Yeah...poor girl. Never did let go of her love for Sally...makes sense when ya' think about it. Odds are good Sally caught her when she was about as low a level as you can expect to find a Spearow (5 or 6), and was thought to be one of her most-trusted...oophta. She might not have known anything else...might have only been hours old when she was caught, and doubtlessly had been with Sally for months. And then to be suddenly given the boot without warning, and not even face-to-face, but suddenly found herself out in the wild somewhere...I'm not sure how well I could've handled that, either.

8245190
Wondered that, too.

8245352
I don't think that would solve anything, really. Paddy, his Espeon, and Mewtwo would all be gone, yes, but beyond that...I don't know. Blue's been kinda inept as a world leader, and has shown some fear response, as has Red, but I can't blame them too much for that bit; I'd probably have similar thoughts if I saw something weaponise our moon, too. That's a whole lot further than having the Sword of Damocles over one's head.
Sure, Keldeo in his old age has been a "jaded little bastard" as it's been pointed out, but after everything he's been through, I really can't blame the guy. Plus he's also doing what he feels is right as best as he knows how, which is frankly all that can be asked of anyone, anypony, or anymon. Tugging on Rarity's leg outside the League building probably wasn't the best move, but his concerns about a probable change in Aengus's attitude were well-founded. Some of his methods seem odd, brusque, or even mean, but the guy has over a century of insight that none of us have. He may have already weighed options we'd pick, and ruled them out for reasons based on experiences and observed trends over his long life.

8245488
Green-eyed Trixie is still with Paddy. Last we heard of Paddy was quite awhile ago, about him departing to meet up with Blue as ordered, since he's the new Indigo League Champion, and must meet with the World Champion.

8245653
Heh. That guys is still out there, somewhere, up to no good for certain, but where, when, and how he'll return...yet to be shown.