Rainbow Dash's Pokémon Journey

by Razor Blade the Unicron

The Journey Begins

Rainbow woke up the second her alarm clock started beeping. She was so excited that she simply smacked her alarm clock until she completely broke, which didn't faze her in the slightest. Today was the day she was going to catch a Pokémon and start her journey across the Equestria region! She could only stay in Cloudstale for so long, after all.

Rainbow flew downstairs, shoveled down two apples for breakfast, hugged her parents goodbye, grabbed her hat and saddlebags, and flew outside. Professor Luna was coming today with three Pokémon for Rainbow and her neighbor choose from, since Rainbow's mom was an old friend of her's.

"Hey, Rainbow," said a snide voice as Rainbow landed at the location Professor Luna had said to meet at, "What took ya so long, Slowpoke?"

"Lightning," greeted Rainbow coldly, as the two had always been rivals in almost everything they did, "Up before three o'clock in the afternoon today, huh?"

"Quiet, you!"

"I apologize if I am late," said Professor Luna, landing in front of the two pegasi, "I nearly left behind the Pokédexes!"

"No problem!" said Rainbow and Lightning Dust at the same time, both pretending as if they didn't hate each other.

Professor Luna smiled, oblivious to the hate passing between the two. She pulled out three Pokéballs with her magic, and held them in the air in front of the two pegasi.

"I have three Pokémon for you to choose from," she said, "Who is going first?"

"Me!" they cried at the same time, "No, me!"

"Do not worry, I brought a coin just in case."

Professor Luna flipped the coin into the air with her magic, and Rainbow called out "Tails!" just as Lightning called out, "Heads!" The coin landed on the fluffy clouds, tails side up. Rainbow grinned at Lightning, who glared back at her.

"Whatever," said Lightning, "I didn't even really want to go first!"

"Uh-huh." said Rainbow.

Rainbow looked at the three Pokéballs, and finally chose the one with a small flame marking on it. She tossed it into the air, and a small orange Pokémon came out.

"Charmander!" it cried happily.

"Awesome!" yelled Rainbow, "You look so cool!"

"My Pokémon is going to look cooler!" said Lightning, throwing the Pokéball with a droplet marking on it into the air.

"Squirtle!" cried the Pokémon as it popped out.

Lightning smirked at Rainbow, who realized that she had chosen a Pokémon with a type to counteract Charmander's. Not like it matter, though, since Rainbow was clearly going to be way stronger than Lightning. Professor Luna tucked away the last Pokéball in her bag, and pulled out two small red devices, which she gave to Rainbow and Lighting.

"This is a Pokédex. It automatically records data on Pokémon you've seen or caught. Though, you can't get detailed data on Pokémon by just seeing them, you must catch them!" she gave them each five Pokéballs, "These are to get you started."

Lightning and Rainbow caught each other's eyes, and both yelled at the same time.

"I challenge you to a Pokémon battle!"

The two jumped back, and their Pokémon stood in battle positions. Professor Luna didn't look surprised that they were already battling, in fact, she seemed rather pleased.

"Well then," she said, "I suppose I should teach you a bit about battles. The first thing you should know is-"

She cut off abruptly as two peculiar looking ponies suddenly burst up from underneath the cloud, and grabbed Squirtle and Charmander.

"Hey!" yelled Lightning as Rainbow yelled, "What do you think you're doing?!?"

"Sorry kids," said one of the ponies, "These rare Pokémon belong to us now!"

"Release their Pokémon," said Professor Luna, holding a Pokéball in her magic, "Or you will have to face me."

"Like we're scared of you!" said the other pony, "Get ready to feel the power of Team Hive! Scyther, come on out!"

"Whirlipede, teach 'em a lesson!" cried the first one.

Two Pokémon came out, looking very angry. Professor Luna quickly pulled out a second Pokéball, and tossed them both into the air.

"Scyther, use Slash!"

The Pokémon called Scyther slashed at Professor Luna's Pokéballs, knocking them downward. Her eyes widened in fear, and she quickly dove down after her precious partners. Rainbow looked at the two ponies with fury in her eyes, and flew towards them with a burst of speed.

"Give me back Charmander!" she cried, snatching Charmander away from them, and knocking Squirtle out of their grip.

Lightning quickly returned Squirtle to its Pokéball, and Rainbow fumbled for Charmander's.

"You little brat!" cried one of the ponies, "Whirlipede, use Rollout!"

The Pokémon called Whirlipede charged at Rainbow, and slammed into her with so much force that she was flung off the cloud she was on. Whirlipede's "spikes" had hit both of her wings, so she couldn't fly. Rainbow flinched when she realized that Whirlipede had also managed to poison her.

Rainbow wrapped her wings around Charmander, since she was too weak to do anything else. As everything faded to black around her, she saw a glimpse of something pink, but everything became dark before she could see what it was.

---

"Char! Charmander!"

Rainbow blinked as she came to, and felt Charmander hug her tightly. She looked around, and realized that she was in a tent, lying down on a blanket. Both of her wings were wrapped up in white bandages.

"Oh, good!" said a purple unicorn, walking into the tent, "You're awake!"

"Char!" cried Charmander happily, letting go of Rainbow.

"Whoa, what happened?" asked Rainbow.

"I don't know," said the unicorn, "But I was just taking a walk when I saw you lying on the ground with your Charmander! Have you been in a fight? Because whoever you fought clearly wasn't following any sort of battle regulations!"

"Well, I had been in Cloudstale and-"

"Cloudstale? But Cloudstale is nowhere near Canterlot!"

"Canterlot?"

"We're just outside of it. Are you sure you were in Cloudstale?"

"I'm pretty sure I know where I've lived my entire life! And anyways, I had just been getting my first Pokémon, Charmander, when these two weird-looking ponies came and tried to steal him! They said they were called Team Hive, or something like that."

"Team Hive! Oh, they're just the worst! They steal other trainer's Pokémon and tons of other awful things! And by the way, they're not ponies, they're Changelings."

"Changelings, huh? I was wondering why they looked so weird..."

"Looks like you made it out okay, though. Team Hive is very cruel."

"No kidding! I can't even image how much they injured my wings..."

"I'm no doctor, but you probably won't be flying for at least a week."

"Meh, it's fine. I wasn't planning on flying too much, anyways. It's way more fun to walk on a journey, don't 'cha think?"

"You're on a journey?"

"Yep! I'm going to the greatest trainer of all time!"

"Pretty bold statement, right there."

"Plus, I've got this to help me!"

Rainbow leaned over to her saddlebags, and pulled out her Pokédex. The unicorn gasped in surprise, and stared at it.

"You have a Pokédex, too?!?" she cried.

"You have one?" asked Rainbow.

"Yes, Professor Cadence gave it to me. She, uh, used to be my foalsitter."

"Cool! I got mine from Professor Luna, since my mom's her friend."

"Wow, so we both have Pokédexes and are on journeys?"

"Yep."

"Well then, uh, do you think we can travel together? I've read that it's much more fun to travel in groups."

"Sure, that sounds great!"

"By the way, my name is Twilight Sparkle."

"Rainbow Dash!"

The two ponies smiled, and Rainbow could tell that this was going to be one heck of a journey.

Comments

[Azure Sandora]

So you're going in the direction of the games, but not following them exactly....

Instant fav.

[Razor Blade the Unicron]

7789771 Thanks!

[Norwegian boy]

It's okay, try to slow down the pace a little. Your moving too fast through the storie.

[Smaug the Golden]

So, a few thoughts. One, you rely far too much on talking heads. It basically becomes lines of dialogue. Describing any relevant actions, how characters responded, etc. all help spice up the dialogue while also preventing it from getting stale. Second, you speed through basically everything. This ties into the aforementioned talking heads, but you skim through a lot of events that could definitely mean more if you spent more time on them. I can't find myself caring about the events in your story if you speed through everything. I couldn't find myself caring about the story because you basically skip through everything. How does Rainbow Dash react to getting a Pokedex? Why does she have a rivalry with Lightning? Etc. These are all things that could easily be expanded on, but you just skip through them like they don't matter.

Lastly, all you've got here is basically the start of any pokemon game- but with ponies. That shouldn't be how you write a good crossover. Otherwise, you're relying too heavily on the source material to draw in old fans who already know the story, and you don't chance enough to let non-fans to find themsleves interested in it. If you want to draw readers in, you should focus on making your own story first and foremost- the tropes of pokemon should come second. Oh, and it's Cloudsdale. Not Cloudstale.

[Razor Blade the Unicron]

7789908 Coudsdale?

[Smaug the Golden]

7789919 Aye.

[SncTCllctr]

Fun little start to the journey. I'm quite tempted to do a broad strokes AU fic of my own based on Kalos. I'm thinking Spike as Ash, Sunset Shimmer as Alain, Sweetie Belle as Mairin, Sunburst as Sawyer, Rarity/Nightmare Rarity as Lysandre, and maybe Queen Chrysalis as Malva.

Liking where this story is headed. Pardon the self-indulgent thinking aloud. Going into the next chapter gladly.

One thing though before I do, there's a bit of an oversaturation of Charmander love. Why not pass her the Bulbasaur (Red's canon Starter and a good counterpart to Tank, since Squirtle would not be her first pick either way) as an effective way to show Dashie to slow down in her battles (since the Bulbasaur line is kinda known for being a line of tactical tanks) and otherwise contrast her usual Glass Cannon speedster tendencies. Good for early development and a great way to demonstrate that the cooler-looking option isn't the immediate winner. But eh, it's your story. Cya next chapter.

[PonyDragon]

I like your idea with Team Hive.
I hope we get at some point more backstory about them.
Will they be able to use the other skills of their race?

7789919
Yes, Coudsdale. Not Coudstale.
See here: http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Cloudsdale

[MidnightInkpaw]

Oh, I am soo happy! BTW, why is it those two, again. Not that I'm complaining.