Pokémon Eclipse

by moviemaster8510

Chapter 18 – Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Olivia perkily hung a bunch of olivine necklaces with wooden-bead chains from a small rack on a chest-high shelf, where similar necklaces with lazulite were set up and ready for selling. While Olivia held her necklaces in around the four left fingers of her left hand, Rarity was off on the other side of the store, carrying several groups of about a dozen pieces of jewelry in her magic. After quickly and neatly hanging three groups of necklaces with silver, gold, and leather-rope chains, respectively, she floated four groups of earrings and rings and placed them neatly on the cashier counter for Carly. Carly smiled at Rarity’s assistance and opened the door to the display.

Just then, the sound of the bell hanging from the top of the front door rung, allowing Olivia, Carly, and Rarity to turn back to see a young woman wearing a bright summery blue dress and white sunhat walk in, already browsing around the walls with her mouth open in an “O” like a kid in a candy store.

“Hello,” Carly spoke with a wave, “welcome to Olivia’s. Feel free to ask us anything.”

“Yeah.” The woman was certainly off in her own world. “Wow, you must have gotten a lot of new stuff recently.”

“Mmhm,” Olivia hummed. “Made off with a really good haul just this morning.”

The woman browsed the earrings that were still left on the counter, admiring the craftsmanship. “And you still had time to cut them and put everything together? These look amazing!”

“Well, I can’t take full credit.”

Rarity then approached the woman, ignoring the slightly condescending way she looked down on her like a puppy. “If you need my help in picking something out, I’d be more than happy to assist you.”

The woman’s arms spasmed about as she let out a short yelp, setting Rarity aback. “Oh, wow. Sorry, I didn’t realize you could talk.”

“It’s quite alright, I’ve gotten that a lot as of late. Now, what were you looking for exactly?”

“Oh, I, uh… it’s just with all the new stuff you got, I was wondering if you have any diamond jewelry.”

Olivia smiled, already walking to the counter. “Yes, we have plenty–

“Nonsense!” Rarity blurted, shocking both Olivia and Carly. “You look more like a tourmaline kind of girl.”

“Sorry, what was that?” The woman sounded a bit offended.

“It’s just with that dress and that hat, I have just the thing to make you look as bright and hot as the summer sun!”

“Uh, okay? Let me see then–”

Before she could finish, Rarity had already placed a gold chain around the woman’s neck and closed the clasp. Just as the woman processed what had happened, Rarity already held up a mirror in front of the base of her neck, revealing a circular yellow gem with six, small wavy rays with smaller tourmaline and garnet stones each taking half of each ray, all of which were held together by a gold frame.

The woman slowly breathed in through her mouth as she held the necklace up closer to the mirror. The necklace worked wonderfully against the sky that was her dress.

“That’s…” the woman managed to mutter out, “beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Rarity said. “I’d never like anyone to leave a jewelry store looking anything less.”

“That’s very nice of you, but…” She suddenly took the necklace off and put it back onto the counter before Carly. “I don’t think I can afford something like that!”

Carly glanced to Rarity, noticing the subtle pang of defeat making her smile quiver. “We can… give you a discount! 20% for… New Gem Day!”

Olivia’s eyes glanced between Carly and the potential customer, wondering if she could make this work.

“How much would that be then?” the woman asked.

“That necklace was…” Carly pulled out a calculator from underneath the register and began punching numbers, muttering to herself. “That’s a medium-gem necklace, tourmaline and garnet, gold chain and framing…” Once she had put in the final numbers, she spoke at normal volume once again. “Normally that would be ¥15,000, but with the 20% off, that will come down to ¥12,000.”

“I don’t know, that still seems a little steep for me.”

As Carly nervously looked around for an answer, Rarity suddenly thought of another option. “Pardon me, Carly, but your store wouldn’t by chance have a payment plan to offer her, would you?”

“That’s right!” Carly looked delighted with the reminder. “We can split the payments in two. You can pay ¥6,000 now and then pay the remaining ¥6,000 in the next thirty days… with interest, of course.”

“Forget interest,” Olivia said. “Just pay ¥6,000 and then you can pay the remaining ¥6,000 in a months time.”

“Wow,” the woman giggled, spinning the necklace with her finger, “you really want me to have this. Okay, sold! What should I do?”

Carly beamed. “Do you have a card? I can swipe it now and then charge the card in 30 days from today.”

“Certainly. That sounds great!”

As the woman dug around in her purse for her wallet, Olivia and Rarity walked away to allow Carly some room.

“That was excellent,” Olivia whispered. “You must have some serious entrepreneur experience.”

“Well, I do own my own clothing store back home,” Rarity quietly chortled. “Not to sound brash, but it’s required of me to pair the right colors together.”

“No offense taken, sweetie. That was quite a good sale we just made there.”

“You’re all set then,” Carly said to the woman. “You’ll be the envy of Akala Island!”

“I sure hope so! Thank you!” She then turned and waved to Rarity with her other hand on the doorknob. “And thank you too!”

“Have a wonderful day, darling!”

The woman pushed the door open and ran outside, clearly eager to tell any friends the purchase she had made.

Olivia crossed her arms and moved toward the stairs. “Follow me, please.”

Rarity wordlessly did as she was told, following her upstairs and into her living space. There, they found Applejack crouching her front down with her rump gently waving in the air, the Stufful eagerly wagging its butt in preparation for its attack. The Stufful rushed forward, and Applejack stood on her hind legs, letting out a playful roar. Stufful continued forward and tackled Applejack down, Olivia and Rarity unable to hold back giggles as the two rolled around on the floor. Rarity cleared her throat, finding Applejack’s situation delightfully compromising.

“Oh, hey y’all!” Applejack and Stufful got off the floor and stood straight to face them. “How’re things goin’ down there?”

“Quite well, in fact,” Olivia answered. “Rarity just helped Carly and I sell one of our best pieces. Really though, I just wanted to thank you two for your fine work this morning, so I thought we could get out of here for a little bit and get some lunch.”

Rarity gasped. “Really?! You’d really take us out?”

“I’ll be with you, so it will be fine. Not to mention, the place I’m taking you is probably the best restaurant on the island, probably even the best in Alola.”

“Sounds good!” Applejack hopped and strolled to join Rarity by her side. “Where to then?”

From downstairs, Carly looked out of the window to see that the woman in the blue-dress had returned. However, her initial worries had gone once she saw three other like-aged women giggling and laughing beside her. Once the woman, looked to and pointed at the building of the store, there was no more doubt in Carly’s mind. The door opened, and the woman led her three friends inside, all of them looking just as wondrously as she did.

The woman in the blue-dress looked around, seeming to miss something. “Excuse me? Where was that Pokémon that was down here helping us?”

On cue, Olivia, a tan gem-encrusted purse hung on her shoulder, came down the stairs with Rarity and Applejack, the sight of whom made the other three girls scream with adoration.

“You weren’t kidding when you said how cute they were!” a woman wearing a green tank-top and blue jeans said.

“You said they can talk too?” asked a darker-skinned woman wearing an orange shirt and khaki shorts.

“No way,” the third friend, wearing a white jacket, teal shirt, and floral knee-length skirt guffawed. “That’s a joke right?”

“Sorry if I caught you in the middle of something,” the woman in the blue dress said, “but do you think you can help out my friends too?”

Rarity rolled her eyes and smiled. Food was on the front her mind, but she could and would gladly wait for the sake of fashion.

Noah and Amy sat impatiently in their seat at a long table inside a small, virtually-empty cafeteria lunchroom save for them, Twilight, and Spike, who sat across and just to the left of them. Twilight sat with her head staring at the spotless white table surface while Spike supported his head with his hands, his elbows supporting his arms. Occasionally, Amy and Noah would look to them, unsure what was causing them so much grief. They hadn’t spoke much since they were called into Training Room C, and it was clear they didn’t want to talk about it.

“Should I ask them? Amy asked.

“I dunno.” Noah looked back to them once again. “Maybe it’s supposed to be a secret.”

“I don’t like people keeping secrets that make them sad.”

“Then go ahead and talk to them.”

Amy scooted herself so that she was directly between and across from the two of them. “Hey, are you two okay?”

Twilight looked up, hoping her face would be the only answer they needed, but a door opened up from the back of the room where a female Aether employee carried out two plates, one containing a small cheese pizza cut into quarters, and the other holding a plate of four fish sticks with a small portion of fries and a small dipping cup of tartar sauce.

The employee placed the pizza before Noah and the fish sticks before Amy on the table. “Here you kids go! I’ll be right back with your salad and… carrot dog.”

“Thank you.” Twilight managed a single nod before slumping her head back over.

Their melancholy was not lost on the employee and she solemnly nodded back and walked back out of the room. Amy began dipping her first fish stick, but seeing the lack of food before either of them left her awkwardly stirring her fish stick absentmindedly.

Noah pulled a gooey slice from his plate, holding it up guiltily. “Hey, Twilight? Spike? Do you want a slice of pizza?”

Twilight and Spike turned to look at him, mustering the energy to sit straight to face him. Twilight smiled to him, both thankful for the offer and to offer a kind façade. “Thank you, Noah, but our food will be out here shortly.”

“Whoops, did we catch you at a bad time?”

Twilight and Spike jerked about to the entryway at the other side of the room, startled by the unfamiliar creaky male voice. However, the faces of both the children lit up as Acerola entered the room along with a man in his early 50’s.

His natural white hair was medium length, slightly messy, and pulled a bit back, but buzzed short and dyed black in the bottom few inches of his hairline and short sideburns. He wore a red-and-black tank top with a black tracksuit jacket over it with a white band and black zigzag pattern going down the sleeves and the sides, a matching pair of snug black sweatpants with a white “X” crossing on the bottom of the shins, and a pair of clean, white sneakers. A pair of sunglasses with circular, yellow frames were held in his hair, and on his left wrist was a dark-grey Z-Ring.

“Acerola!” both children cheered, leaping out of their seats and rushing toward them. “Uncle Guzma!”

“There they are!” While Guzma’s scratchy voice was indeed offputting, there was evident warmth and compassion that came from it as well. Squatting down, he caught both children in both arms, standing up with both of them sitting on his forearms. “So, what’cha get me for lunch? Pizza? Fish sticks? My favorites!”

“That’s our lunch!” Noah giggled. “You can have a bite if you like, though.”

“No, no!” Acerola scolded with a wagging finger. “Guzma and I are perfectly capable of ordering for ourselves.”

“Ugh, fine!” Guzma groaned, letting the kids back down. “But you better have ordered an appetizer for us before we got here.”

Spike huffed, a wobbly smile suddenly etched on his face. Twilight looked to Spike, who managed to keep a cool face, shrugging to her as if he didn’t know what she was looking at. With Noah and Amy returned to the table, Guzma’s eyes trained upon the alicorn and baby dragon sitting across from them.

“Where in the heck did you even find those things, anyway?” Guzma harshly whispered.

“I didn’t.” Even when hushed, Guzma could hear Acerola’s disdain. “Nanu found them wandering the Haina Desert, and he offered to let me take them here.”

“Hmph. Old man probably has some sense in that head of his after all.”

Acerola couldn’t help but giggle. “Come on. Let me introduce you.”

Acerola led the way as Guzma followed, his hands inside of his pockets. As they approached the table, taking the seats next to Noah and Amy, the Aether Employee served Twilight and Spike their food. As they sat down, the employee acknowledged them.

“Good afternoon you two. Something to eat or drink, Acerola?”

“Just a Roserade Iced Tea, extra sweet, and maybe a grilled cheese?”

“Certainly. And Guzma, the usual Tapu Cocoa and pan noodle bowl?”

“It’s like you don’t even need to ask,” Guzma cooed with his face pushed far out to her as his neck could allow.

The woman chuckled and made her way back. With her gone, Twilight and Spike had no one else to look at other than Acerola and the stranger sitting next to her.

“Twilight, Spike, this is Guzma, a… close friend of mine.” Acerola sheepishly put her hand up to show him off.

“Um, hello, Guzma,” Twilight seemed reluctant to, but Guzma’s lack of hesitation made the process of shaking hands with him much easier. “How exactly do you know Acerola?”

“Oh us?” Guzma finished shaking Spike’s hand, who seemed impressed by his firm, yet gentle grip. “Not to brag or anything, but you’re looking at half of the Pokémon League right here.”

“The Pokémon League?” Spike asked, his mouth full of carrot dog. “What’s that?”

“We have this thing in Alola called the Island Trials,” Acerola explained. “Trainers and their Pokémon have to defeat all the trials and defeat the kahunas of all four islands. Once they do that, they have to challenge and defeat the Pokémon League, which is comprised of four super strong Pokémon trainers, which, as Guzma said, includes the both of us.”

“That’s… very interesting.” Twilight stared down at her untouched salad, something that Acerola was quick to pick up on.

“I’m sorry,” Acerola said, “did you want us to wait until you finished your lunch? We can come back in a few minutes to give you some–”

“No, that’s okay, but since you’re here, I want to ask you some questions. First of all, why did you bring us here?”

Acerola seemed rather confused by the question. “This… place is quite arguably the safest place on Ula’ula Island. Why? Is something wrong?”

“Seems to be,” Guzma interrupted, twirling his finger at Twilight’s dish, “they apparently don’t make good salads here.”

“Guzma!” Acerola’s hiss made Guzma turn away from her and put his hands up. “But seriously, what’s the matter?”

Twilight squirmed, unsure how the two humans would take her reply. “We just learned that this Aether Foundation are the same people responsible for my friends and I getting stuck here. You can probably understand that that would make us feel like prisoners here.”

“You shouldn’t though.” Guzma turned back to face her.

Acerola came close to pinching the bridge of her nose. “Guzma, I swear to–”

“Relax, I have a point here. I knew this place back when they were at their lowest. I… hate to admit that I played a big part in a lot of their shady dealings.”

“Do you remember this?” Twilight asked Acerola.

“Very much so.”

“Then why would you bring us here?”

“People change, Twilight.” Guzma leaned back and put his ankle on the unoccupied seat next to her, and she reflexively shied away from it. “So did the people of Aether. I continue to be a friend of the family that owns the place, and I can tell you that they’ve cleaned their act up quite a bit. Whatever freak accident happened to you and your pals was just that: an accident.”

“That’s also what Sun told us,” Spike replied.

“You talked with Sun?” Acerola brightened her face. “Is he doing well?”

“Our… conversation really wasn’t casual,” Twilight answered. “He basically told us that our being here was his fault, and that we couldn’t leave because some group was after us.”

“You mean Team Prism?”

“Yes! How did you know?”

“Probably not the best source for you, but Sun told the two of us about it.” Twilight’s ears did droop hearing that. “But he also said to me that he heard about it from Hau, who heard it from two trainers.”

“Wait, Hau?” Spike asked.

“Oh, sorry! He’s a childhood friend of Sun’s, but he serves as the Kahuna for Melemele Island. You can totally trust him, though. He’s the sweetest young man you’ll ever meet, if you get the chance, that is.”

“Besides,” Guzma breathed out proudly, “both of us specialize in Pokémon that are strong against Psychics. Those hooded punks would have to be real numbskulls to mess with you with us around.”

For what it was worth, Twilight and Spike both couldn’t help but smile at this ragtag duo. However, something struck Guzma’s statement as odd.

“Wait a second, did you say ‘Psychic?’”

Before Guzma could answer, the female Aether employee walked in carrying Guzma’s noodles and hot chocolate, as well as Acerola’s sandwich and iced tea.

“Enjoy your lunches, you two,” she said to them before turning to Twilight and Spike. “Also, Sun has scheduled you to talk with Professor Burnet later this afternoon. She claims that she met with two of your friends.”

“Is that true?” Twilight shot up with her front hooves standing on the table. “Is she available now?”

“I’m afraid not. She managed to squeeze some time in though before dinner. Speaking of, you should eat your salad before it gets too wilty.”

Twilight looked back down at her still-untouched salad, beaming with mild embarrassment before the woman bowed to her and went off on her way.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight whispered to the two, “you two aren’t leaving too soon, are you?”

“Not at all!” Acerola scooped up a wedge of her grilled cheese. “We can talk about everything you need to know before we do. But first…”

Acerola took a bite from her sandwich, allowing Guzma to pick up his chopsticks and grab at least one of each vegetable inside along with a half a dozen of the thick noodles. With both of their new friends eating, Twilight felt far more comfortable to begin on her salad.

Sitting on the elevated outdoor porch patio of what appeared to be a sizable rustic pub, Sam, Alice, Starlight, and Fluttershy looked off to their left, seeing two Mudbrays galloping around inside of a large pen. Lady, sitting on Starlight’s lap, whimpered and squirmed as the table of three beside them were served their entrees, the subtle steam wafting off of them making Starlight struggle to keep her from wiggling free.

“Lady, calm down!” Starlight groaned. “Our appetizers will be coming any minute.”

Lady sighed again as she glanced over to see one person take a large bite out of his burger. Sam and Alice ignored her and turned back to face each other at the table, picking up their lemonades well diluted from the melted ice in the harsh sun.

“So, what’s the plan, Sam?” Alice took a sip of her drink, the water reducing the tartness and sweetness. “Oh, much better.”

“Well, we have the Brooklet Hill trial just north of us,” Sam said. “Obviously we should do that first and see if any of your friends wound up there. The next part may not be well-received, but hear me out. I suggest that after the next trial, we split up near the Royal Avenue. A pair of us will go north and go clockwise around the island, and the other two will go east and go the opposite direction. Alice and I will both challenge the trials individually while we comb the island for any ponies that may be there.

“We’ll probably meet up again somewhere around Route 8, but we’ll continue going about until we meet up again at our split-off spot, since we’ll have to challenge the trials the other completed. That way, we can try and strengthen ourselves individually and essentially look for them twice.”

“Okay,” Starlight said, “that’s an interesting strategy, but why should we do any of that?”

“I…” Sam let out a single incredulous laugh, “didn’t you listen to me? I–”

“Yeah, we heard you Sam,” Alice jumped in, “and I appreciate that you want to learn to fight on your own, but we can’t afford to run into Team Prism by ourselves again.”

“It worked for me, didn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Starlight exclaimed, “because we got help from wild Pokémon. Again!”

“I’d have to imagine that would just make Team Prism even angrier now,” Fluttershy added.

“Fluttershy’s right,” Alice said, “We got lucky, and we got even luckier to get lucky twice. Chances are that Team Prism are going to pull all the stops and make sure they fight us like it will happen again when it most certainly won’t.”

“Okay, okay!” Sam threw his hands up, tiredly dropping them on the table. “I get it. I just want to be sure we don’t mess this up.”

“We won’t,” Starlight said. “You have me, Alice, Fluttershy, and Lady to help out. You shouldn’t have to worry about leaving any stones unturned.”

“Right. Now we just have to figure out where to go from here.”

“How’s about this,” Alice said. “We just go north and go clockwise from there. With your Fomantis and my Pikachu, we’ll get through the Brooklet Hill trial no problem, and with my Noibat and… your Fomantis has some kind of Bug-type move, right?”

“Yeah, it knows Fury Cutter.”

“There you go! With him–”

“Her.”

“–we can beat the Lush Jungle trial without a hitch. Hopefully, by the time we reach the Wela Volcano trial, we’ll each get at least one more Pokémon that can beat the Fire-types up there.”

Sam smiled, proud and relieved by his sister’s natural intuition. “Sounds great to me, and look.”

Alice, the ponies, and Lady turned in the direction, the latter breathing in heavy as four large baskets containing onion rings, mozzarella sticks, and potato skins were carried by a server on a tray, the sight made even more tantalizing once they were all put on the table.

“That’s a lot of food, there,” the server said. “You sure you don’t want to save room for lunch?”

Sam and Alice, their eyes and mouths slightly widening as if they had forgotten, took out each of their Poké Balls from their belts and tossed them out into an open space next to them on the patio. At once, Honedge, Fomantis, Noibat, Pikachu, and Rockruff appeared out and moved toward their respective trainers.

Honedge floated beside Sam, whose lap Fomantis hopped into, while Noibat perched itself on Alice shoulder, and Rockruff and Pikachu sat on Alice and Fluttershy’s laps, respectively.

“I think we’ll have plenty of room,” Alice whispered with assurance.

“Duly noted.” The server tipped the lid of his cap, and walked away with his tray held under his arm.

“Okay, Lady, you can dig in now!” Starlight laughed as Eevee leapt onto the table on one of the baskets and pulled out a potato skin.

Fomantis climbed off Sam’s legs and sat itself down beside Lady, pulling out an onion ring and feasting happily beside it. With the newest members of their party fed, the others began eagerly loading their plates with food and sauces for them and their Pokémon to enjoy.

Comments

[DualKitsune]

Hmm, I'm worried about that accident and how Prism knows about unicorns.

[raven618]

Tch-hehe, I'm laughing just from the chapter title.