My Little Pokemon

by Alabenson

Hothouse Housebreak

“Y’know, I really thought that things would be a little warmer heading to a place called Florasburg,” Rainbow Dash said as she shivered in the frigid air. “Isn’t the cold supposed to be bad for plants or something? And why the hay don’t humans have fur?”

“Have you tried checking your bag? Spike and I both had jackets and scarves in ours,” Twilight said. “If you don’t have anything like that, you could always try putting on a few more layers. That should at least help you stay warm.”

Twilight’s suggestion was met by a less than eager reception from Rainbow Dash. “Ugh, if I put a bunch of layers on then I’m barely going to be able to move. This cannot possibly get any worse.”

“Look on the bright side,” Spike offered. “At least it isn’t raining or anything. What?” Spike added as Twilight turned to stare at him with a look that was equal parts disbelief and annoyance.

“Twilight, you don’t seriously think its going to start raining just because Spike said that, do you?” Rainbow Dash teased. “Come on, that sort of thing only happens in books. Or, if I have a raincloud and somepony says it and I think it’ll be really funny.”

“Maybe, but I’d rather not tempt fate, especially not with the way the sky looks right now.” As Twilight spoke, she glanced uneasily up at the sky, which was dark grey with clouds

“Come on, Twilight, you seriously need to learn to relax,” Rainbow Dash said. “If saying stuff like that got clouds to start raining then you wouldn’t need pegasi to handle the weather. Applejack could just go outside and start saying how glad she is that it isn’t raining whenever she wanted to water her garden. Besides, take it from a weatherpony, those clouds up there don’t have a drop of rain in them.”

“Are you sure about that?” Twilight asked.

“Of course,” Rainbow Dash said. “Any weatherpony worth their feathers could tell you those clouds are way too cold for rain. The only stuff those things are gonna have in them is—” At that exact moment, a particularly large snowflake flittered through the air before alighting on Rainbow Dash’s nose. “—snow.” More snowflakes started to descend from the sky, quickly coating the ground in a layer of white.

“This isn’t good, we need to get moving and find some sort of shelter,” Twilight said.

“What’s the big deal, it’s just a little snow, right?” Spike replied.

“Actually, I think Twilight’s right, we really should find someplace to wait for this to blow over,” Rainbow Dash said. “This snow’s picking up pretty fast, and if we try moving in this there’s a good chance we’d wind up getting turned around and lost.” Rainbow paused as she regarded the steadily falling snow and growled in frustration. “But, it’s not like we can just stay here, either. There isn’t anywhere we could take shelter around here, and if we tried to put up tents in this stuff they might collapse under the snow.” Before Twilight or Spike could offer a solution, a shrill cry cut through the air as Rainbow Dash’s Skarmory dove out of the sky and landed next to the group. “Skarmory! Great timing. Listen, we need to find someplace out of this snow where we can camp for the night. Did you see anyplace like that while you were up in the air?”

Nodding its head, Skarmory pointed a wing into the distance across the snowy plateau. When the group tried peering into the distance, however, they found the falling snow obscured their vision too much to make anything out,

“Well, what do you guys thing we should do?” Twilight asked as she continued to stare into the snow.

“Come on, is it even a question? We follow Skarmory,” Rainbow Dash said firmly. “The only other thing we could do is wander around and hope we find someplace before we all get completely buried. At least this way we should be headed towards something.”

Twilight sighed and nodded her head. “I guess I can’t really argue with any of that. Let’s get going, then. If we stand around here much longer we won’t be able to see our hands in front of our faces.”

*********

True to Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s predictions, it wasn’t long before the snowstorm became so fierce that they could scarcely see where they were going. Not only was the snowfall itself practically opaque, but the sky soon darkened to near pitch black and the driving wind made even keeping their eyes open a challenge.

“Do we have any idea how much further this place is?” Twilight called out, struggling to make herself heard over the howling wind.

“It shouldn’t be too much further,” Rainbow Dash yelled back. “I don’t think Skarmory would have flown out that far ahead. We just need to keep moving.”

“What’s that?” Spike called out.

“I said, we just need to—”

“Not what you said. I meant, what’s that?” Confused, Twilight and Rainbow Dash peered into the storm to try and make out what Spike was talking about. At first, neither could see anything but the swirling snow. But then, dark shapes started to appear in the distance, faint at first, but seemingly rapidly moving towards the group. Before Twilight or Rainbow Dash could even fully process what was going on, roughly a dozen or so creatures, each vaguely resembling a bidpedal cat or weasel, rushed by them. The creatures appeared to pay the group little mind as they dashed by, and in moments the creatures had disappeared back into the storm just as quickly as they had appeared.

“Okay, that was weird,” Rainbow Dash said once the creatures had vanished into the darkness. “Just what they hay were those things, anyway?”

Sneasel, the Sharp Claw Pokémon. These particularly vicious Pokémon are known for raiding the nests of other Pokémon to steal and eat their eggs. While Sneasel normally prefer to attack unguarded nets, they are able to fight of prey with their razor sharp claws.

“Yeesh, those guys don’t sound very nice,” Spike said as his Pokédex finished reading Sneasel’s entry. “All that stuff about stealing eggs kinda reminds me a little too much of Garble.”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s quite that bad,” Twilight said. “At least it sounds as though those things do it for food rather than just causing mayhem for the fun of it. More importantly, it looks like they were running away from where we’re headed. That could mean we’re getting closer.”

“Great, so let’s get moving before we get turned into a bunch of snowponies…snowpeople? Whatever humans call those things,” Rainbow Dash said. The strange moment having passed, the group continued to push forward into the storm. Mercifully, after only a few more minutes of marching through the cold they were finally able to catch sight of a light shining in the distance. “Awesome! There it is! Let’s pick up the pace so we can warm up.” As the group broke into a hustle as they rushed towards the light, they could soon see that it was coming from a large building of some kind. Curiously, large sections of the building appeared to be made almost completely out of glass.

“Is it just me, or does that place look kind of like a greenhouse?” Twilight asked as they approached the building, which now appeared to be nearly the size of the gyms they had encountered previously.

“I dunno, Twilight, it doesn’t really look all that green to me,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Honestly, it looks more brown with transparent glassy parts.”

“No, a greenhouse is a building that has walls and roofs made out of glass,” Twilight explained. “That lets it keep the temperature inside warm so plants can be grown in it year round.”

“So that means its gonna be nice and warm in there, right? Awesome!” Rainbow Dash said as she quickened her pace, forcing Twilight and Spike to practically run in order to keep up. Even so, Rainbow Dash was well ahead of the pair by the time she reached the door to the building, leaving them with little way of objecting as she threw open the doors and barged inside.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled as she finally made it to the doorway and paused to catch her breath. “You shouldn’t just barge into a place like this without at least trying to see if anyone’s inside. For all we know this could be somebody’s home!”

“Normally I’d agree with you, but we were trying to get out of a freaking blizzard! I’m pretty sure that if anybody was living here, they’d understand. Though, I’m not really sure if there is anybody here anyway,” Rainbow Dash added. While Spike clambered inside and shut the door behind him, Twilight and Rainbow Dash took a moment to look around the room they now found themselves standing in. It looked to be a lobby of some kind, but aside from the lights being on there wasn’t any sign the building was inhabited. Blankets had been tossed over most of the furniture and the computer screens Twilight could see behind the main desk were all dark and deactivated. “So, what the hay is this place supposed to be, anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked. “From what you said about that greenhouse thing I’m guessing it has something to do with plants, but why the hay would you be growing plants way out here?”

“I have no idea,” Twilight admitted. “I guess we could try searching for clues or something, but at this point I think I just want to get some rest.”

“Well, you can rest if you want, but I think I’m gonna take a look around this place,” Rainbow Dash said. “Hey, Spike, you wanna come with me?”

“Sure!” Spike replied before turning back to Twilight. “Are you going to be alright back here by yourself?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Twilight assured her friend. “It’s just an empty building, it doesn’t even look that old. And it isn’t like you and Rainbow Dash are going to be gone for that long, either. I mean, honestly, what’s the worst that could happen?”

*********

Twilight groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. “What’s the worst that could happen? What was I thinking saying something like that?” Twilight thought to herself ass he tried to replay the events that had led up to her current predicament in her mind.

With Rainbow Dash and Spike off exploring, Twilight had simply lain down on one of the couches in the lobby and tried to get some sleep. After a half-hour or so of trying to get comfortable, however, Twilight heard the sounds of something scurrying across the floorboards. At first, Twilight tried to ignore the noise, thinking it was just her mind playing tricks on her, but upon hearing it again she sat up and glanced around the room looking for the noises source. “Spike, is that you?” Twilight called out. “Rainbow Dash, if this is supposed to be some kind of joke it really isn’t very funny.” Twilight paused and waited for a minute for an answer, but the lobby remained silent. As Twilight debated whether or not the mystery noises were worth trying to investigate, however, she heard another noise, this time directly to her left. Twilight promptly turned her head to come face-to-face with a pair of oval brown eyes. Letting out a yelp of surprise, Twilight toppled off of the couch onto the ground. When Twilight picked herself off the ground, she saw that a small, green Pokémon with a light green body and an onion-shaped head standing on the back of the couch.

“Petilil,” the creature chirped happily as Twilight stood up to take a closer look at it.

“Huh, were you the one that was making all that noise, then?” Twilight asked, not really expecting an answer. In response, the Petilil seemed to smile (Twilight wasn’t entirely sure as the Petilil didn’t appear to have a mouth) and began to shake the leaves atop its head. Curious as to what the Pokémon was doing, Twilight leaned in for a closer look, only for the Petilil to spray her in the face with a blast of green powder. Caught off guard, Twilight staggered backwards a bit before collapsing back onto the floor and quickly slipping into unconsciousness.

“And then I woke up here,” Twilight thought as she tried to look around and see what ‘here’ actually consisted of. Twilight’s first realization was that she had been tied up with what looked to be vines of some kind. Twilight could only barely make out that detail, however, as there didn’t seem to be any lights in the room, or rather closet, where she had woken up. The only illumination in the tiny room came from the edges of the door leading outside. As Twilight wracked her brains trying to think of a way out of her predicament (including mentally going through every Daring Do novel to see how Daring Do might have escaped), Twilight caught the sound of muffled voices coming from outside. Shuffling over in the tight confines of the room, Twilight pressed her ear to the door in an effort to hear what was being said.

“—the hay were you guys thinking?” To Twilight’s shock, the very first voice she heard was none other than that of Rainbow Dash.

“Well, they did kind of have a reason for doing it,” Spike, evidently there as well, replied. “I just hope Twilight isn’t too mad about the whole thing.” Upon hearing this, Twilight decided to make her actual feelings on the situation known by swinging her legs around so she could kick at the door.

“Mad? Why would I be mad? They just knocked me unconscious, tied me up and locked me in a closet! Why in Equestria would I be mad about any of that?” Twilight continued to kick at the door in frustration until it suddenly opened while she was in mid-kick, causing her to topple out into the open. Looking up, Twilight could see a concerned Spike and Rainbow Dash looking down at her, along with a large number of various plant-like Pokémon.

“Hey, Twilight,” Spike said nervously as he bent down. “Let me just get you untied real quick and I can explain what’s going on.”

“I already know what’s going on,” Twilight snapped. “Somebody had their Pokémon knock me out so they could tie me up and stuff me in a…garden shed?” As Twilight finally took the opportunity to take in her surroundings, she realized that she was sitting in a massive garden or nursery. “We must be in one of the greenhouses we saw attached to the building,” Twilight said, more to herself than anyone else before shaking her head. “Anyway, what I want to know is who’s responsible for having that Pokémon knock me out, and more importantly, why?” Spike and Rainbow Dash started to open their mouths to respond, but before either could utter a word, a harsh voice cut them both off.

“Roserade!” As Twilight looked on in confusion, the various Pokémon parted to allow a particularly dramatic-looking Pokémon through. The creature resembled a three-foot-tall bouquet of white roses that had sprouted arms and legs, its arms each ending in another bouquet, one red and the other blue. Not even bothering to look to its sides at the other Pokémon, the creature walked forward until it stood directly in front of Twilight, regarding her for a moment before haughtily turning away with a huff and walking off.

“That’s Roserade,” Spike whispered as he continued to pull at the vines binding Twilight. “Its pretty much the leader around here.”

“Wait, a Pokémon is the one running things around here?” Twilight asked, earning a disdainful look from Roserade.

“Kind of, we think,” Rainbow Dash said. “There don’t really seem to be any humans around here, just Pokémon, and the Pokémon here all listen to Roserade, even though it’s a complete jerk!” Rainbow Dash added as she scowled at Roserade, who didn’t appear to pay her any attention.

Spike, meanwhile, let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, Rainbow Dash and Roserade haven’t exactly been getting along.”

“Gee, I wonder why?” Twilight grumbled. “I’m guessing Roserade is the one who had the Pokémon knock me out?”

“Look, I know it seems bad, but there actually is a really good explanation for why they did that,” Spike quickly said. In response, Twilight folded her arms and gave Spike a look he recognized as ‘I’ll let you explain, but this had better be good’. “Well, you remember those Sneasel that ran past us while we were out in the blizzard? It turns out they’ve been attacking this place and trying to steal their food, and when we showed up Roserade thought that we might be trying to help them.” As Spike spoke, he gestured towards a section of the indoor garden behind Twilight that looked as though it had been demolished and hastily put back together. “I know you’re probably kind of, well, peeved over what Roserade did, but it was just trying to protect its home.”

“Besides, Roserade might be a jerk, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the Pokémon here are,” Rainbow Dash added.

Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes, suspecting she knew where the conversation was headed. “You two think we should stay here and help defend this place from the Sneasel, don’t you?”

“They are letting us stay here until the storm blows over,” Rainbow Dash said. “Plus, its not like we can really go anywhere else until then anyway.”

“I guess I can’t really argue with you there,” Twilight said, knowing when she was beaten. “That said, do you really think those Sneasel are going to come back here in the middle of a blizzard?”

“The blizzard is exactly why they’re probably going to come back,” Spike said. “According to the Pokédex, those Sneasel are Ice-types, so this snow is barely going to bother them at all. That means that this would be the perfect time for them to attack.”

“And I don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hay not gonna let those things get to me in my sleep,” Rainbow Dash declared.

“Fine,” Twilight said. “So does anyone have a plan?”

*********

“This really isn’t a plan,” Twilight said as she followed Rainbow Dash and Spike on a tour of the greenhouse. “This barely even qualifies as an idea.”

“Come on Twilight, this is perfect,” Rainbow Dash countered. “We don’t know when the Sneasel are actually gong to attack, so we just need to keep on our guard at all times. That’s why I’ve got Skarmory out and ready and Spike’s got Peewee. You should probably get one of you Pokémon ready, too.”

“Well, given that we’re going to be battling Ice Pokémon, Charmeleon would probably be the most effective option, but…” Twilight paused as she looked around at the gardens and at all the fragile, flammable plants within.

“Yeah, Charmeleon might not be the best option for around here,” Rainbow Dash said. “Fire and plants don’t really seem like a good mix, and besides, hasn’t Charmeleon been acting up recently?”

Twilight nodded her head glumly. “I’m trying to work on it, but it’s not exactly easy to solve a friendship problem when you can’t understand what one side is saying.”

“Hey, don’t worry, you’ll figure it out,” Rainbow Dash said. “To be honest, figuring out what Pokémon are saying is way easier than regular animals. I mean, you could have asked me what Tank was saying and I wouldn’t have a clue. I mean, usually I’d just guess he wanted strawberries or something, ‘cause he usually did, but that would really be more of lucky guess. Pokémon, though, I can usually get.”

“Are you actually saying you’ve figured out how to talk to Pokémon?” Twilight asked excitedly as she thought of the potential applications.

“Not really. I mean, I can kind of understand them sometimes, but its not really like talking,” Rainbow Dash said before spotting a mushroom-like Pokémon that had been hopping along behind them. “Here, look at this guy for a sec,” Rainbow Dash said as she scooped the Pokémon up in her hands.

“Shroomish!” the Pokémon said happily as Rainbow Dash lifted it up.

“See, I don’t have any idea what this little guy just said. But I had hung out with it a bit before while me and Spike were trying to get Roserade to let you out of that shed. And, I can just sort of tell that Shroomish is a pretty cool little guy who wants to help us protect its home from those Sneasel.”

“Shroomish Shroomish!”

“Hah, see? I can’t understand what its saying exactly but I get it, you know?” Rainbow Dash said, though Twilight shook her head.

“Sorry, I’m not saying I don’t believe what you’re saying, I absolutely do. In fact, what you’re describing sounds a lot like how Fluttershy described talking to animals once. I’m just not sure if I can do that myself,” Twilight added.

Rainbow Dash simply shrugged as she put Shroomish back down. “You probably could if you really tried. You’ve just got to find a Pokémon that you get and make friends with it. And you’re the Princess of Friendship, that should be a piece of cake for you,” Rainbow Dash added.

“Sure, a piece of cake,” Twilight grumbled to herself. “Still, I do need to keep trying to build a connection with my Pokémon. And, this might actually be a good opportunity to bond with one of them. The question is, which one? Charmeleon’s no good, at least not in a place where there’s so much that could get set on fire, and I don’t think Whirlipede would be a good choice either. It’s had enough trying to bond with a Pokémon under the best of circumstances, let alone one that doesn’t have a fac. So, I guess that leaves…Noibat!” Twilight reached into her bag and tossed out Noibat’s Poké Ball, releasing the bat-like Pokémon into the air. Upon being let out, Noibat began flying around in circles chirping happily. “Um…hi,” Twilight began, not entirely certain how she should address the recently caught Pokémon. Twilight had succeeded in catching Noibat’s attention, however, and it promptly let out a cry of delight before alighting onto Twilight’s shoulder. “Wow, you’re a lot more friendly than I was expecting.”

“Ha, see, I told you you’d get it once you gave it a real try,” Rainbow Dash said. “Anyway, I’m gonna go check on Spike to see how he’s doing. Come get me if you need anything, alright?”

“Hold on a second,” Twilight said as Rainbow Dash started to turn to leave. “I was just wondering about something. You and Roserade really don’t seem to get along at all. Is there some reason why?”

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh. “Well, it’s all kind of a long story. You know how Spike and I were checking out the rest of this place while you were trying to sleep…”

*********

“So, what the hay do you think this place is supposed to be, anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked as she and Spike wandered through the building.

“I have no idea. Most of this place just looks like regular office stuff,” Spike replied as paused to open a file cabinet only to close it again in disinterest. “Maybe we should try checking out the greenhouse instead. There’s probably a lot more interesting stuff there.” Rainbow Dash simply shrugged, not really having any better suggestions. The pair made their way back down to the right side of the building, where several sets of double doors presumably led to the greenhouse sections of the complex. “So, which of these do you think we should try first?”

“I dunno, they all pretty much look the same to me,” Rainbow Dash said. However, as Rainbow Dash approached one of the doors, she could hear odd sounds coming from inside. Motioning to Spike to keep quiet, Rainbow Dash cautiously cracked open the door and peered inside. Beyond the doors lay a massive indoor garden filled with various Pokémon tending to the plants. For several moments, Rainbow Dash simply watched the Pokémon go about their gardening, finding the sight relaxing, if a little boring. Suddenly, however, a shrill cry of annoyance cut through the air as what looked like an ambulatory bouquet of roses stormed out and began chastising the various Pokémon.

“Hey, what’s going on in there?” Spike asked as he tried to see what was going on. As Spike sidled up to the door, however, he tripped and crashed into it, causing both himself and Rainbow Dash to spill into the room. For a brief second all activity within the room ceased as the Pokémon inside turned to look at the pair, now sprawled out on the floor, before the silence was replaced by pure panic. In the midst of the pandemonium, however, a lone, brown and green mushroom-like Pokémon hopped up towards Rainbow Dash and Spike while doing its level best to look intimidating.

“Shroomish!” the creature demanded as it hopped in place about a foot or so from Rainbow Dash’s face. “Shroomish Shroomish!”

“Uh, hi,” Rainbow Dash replied as she picked herself up and sat up cross-legged in front of the Pokémon. “So…I’m guessing you guys all live her or something? We’re just here trying to stay out of the blizzard until the whole thing blows over.” This statement seemed to mollify the Shroomish, however at that moment a harsh cry rang out as a Roserade strode out towards Rainbow Dash and Spike. The Shroomish that had approached Rainbow Dash attempted to intercept this new Pokémon, however the Roserade simply brushed it aside with one foot without even looking down.

“Roserade!” the creature said accusingly as it pointed its red-rose-tipped limb in Rainbow Dash’s face.

“Hey, take it easy. Like I was just saying, me and my friends only came in here because of the snowstorm. We don’t want to cause any trouble or anything,” Rainbow Dash as she pushed the roses out of her face. The Roserade, however, didn’t appear to accept this explanation as acceptable as it stomped its foot and impatiently gestured towards outside. “Hey! You can’t just kick us out in the middle of a freaking blizzard!” Rainbow Dash protested. When Roserade continued to gesture for Rainbow Dash to leave, however, the other Pokémon present began to gather in a circle around them and proceeded to raise a fuss. “What they hay is going on here?” Rainbow Dash asked to no one in particular.

“I think the rest of the Pokémon are telling that big one that they don’t think it’s right to throw us out in the middle of blizzard,” Spike said, to which one of the nearby Pokémon nodded its head.

“Roserade!” A sudden scream from Roserade caused all of the other Pokémon present to quiet down, and it seemed to massage its temples as it let out a sigh. Suddenly, Roserade pointed one of its arms back at Rainbow Dash and Spike, and before either could say anything it released a cloud of green powder that thoroughly coated both of them. Rainbow Dash couldn’t even voice a protest as she felt herself collapse to the floor with Spike landing next to her…

*********

“…so Roserade had decided that if it couldn’t kick us out, it was just gonna Stun Spore us and then toss us in a closet somewhere,” Rainbow Dash explained. “Luckily, Spike was able to get his Ivysaur out and it kept Roserade away from us until the other Pokémon here got it to stop being such a jerk, but by that point it had already sent some other Pokémon after you, and I guess you know the rest.”

“Mmhmm,” Twilight said, still somewhat irritable over her brief ordeal. Even as she spoke, however, a sudden bit of movement int the shadows outside the windows nearby caught her eye. “Did you see that?” Twilight asked as she started to move towards the window, Noibat hopping off her shoulder and taking to the air as she did so.

“See what?” Rainbow Dash asked, following Twilight towards the windows. “All I see is dark and snow.”

“I could have sworn I saw something moving around out there,” Twilight said as she peered out into the darkness. Just as Twilight was ready to conclude that her eyes were simply playing tricks on her, however, she spotted several more figures darting about in the gloom. “There, they’re right there!” It’s the -” Twilight’s cries were cut short by the sound of shattering glass a stones and other bits of junk were hurled through the greenhouse windows. Moments later, at least a half-dozen Sneasel leapt through the broken windows and made a mad dash into the gardens.

“Aw crud, you weren’t kidding about seeing stuff out there,” Rainbow Dash cried out. “Skarmory, time to get in gear. Take those guys out with your Metal Claw!”

“Right, Noibat, you too. Try and keep them separated with your Air Cutter!” Twilight added. Noibat promptly began frantically beating its wings, sending crescents of pressurized air slicing across the Sneasel’s path. While the attack only seemed to cause the Sneasel to hesitate for a moment, it was enough time for Skarmory to collide talon-first with one of the Sneasel, sending it sprawling to the ground.

“Yeah, that’s how we do it! Alright, next you’re gonna need to – Watch out!” in the wake of Skarmory and Noibat’s attack, several of the Sneasel had turned their attention towards their opponents. In particular, three of the Sneasel were now blowing jets of wind and snow at Skarmory as it wheeled about in the air. While the attacks didn’t seem to be causing much harm to Skarmory directly, Rainbow Dash could see patches of ice being left behind on Skarmory’s wings, slowing it down bit by bit. “Crud, if this keeps up then Skarmory’s barely going to be able to stay in the air. Dang it…Skarmory, try taking another one out with Metal Claw!” Skarmory let out a shriek and dove towards one of the three Sneasel attacking it, slamming it into the ground. Unfortunately, the other two Sneasel seized on this opportunity by leaping onto Skarmory’s back and slashing at it with their claws as it struggled to get back in the air.

As Rainbow Dash started to panic, however, she noticed a cloud of sparkling, purple dust floating through the air towards Skarmory. Confused, Rainbow Dash turned to see the Shroomish she had befriended earlier practically vibrating with a determined look on its face as it sent the clouds of purple dust into Skarmory’s path. When Skarmory passed through the cloud it seemed completely unaffected by the powder. The two Sneasel, however, looked visibly sickened by the experience. Despite this, however, both Sneasel continued to cling to Skarmory’s back as tightly as ever.

“That was a good try, but those things still aren’t letting go,” Rainbow Dash said as she growled in frustration. “There’s gotta be some way to get those things off of Skarmory’s back,” As Rainbow Dash pondered her options, Shroomish burst into action, dashing towards Skarmory before leaping into the air and slamming itself into one of the Sneasel, knocking it off Skarmory’s back. Shroomish’s efforts, however, weren’t enough to take the Sneasel out of the fight, and while its fellow continued to cling to Skarmory, the Sneasel Shroomish had attacked refocused its attention to the small grass type. Shroomish was unintimidated and met the Sneasel’s angry glare with one of its own. “Don’t worry, Shroomish, Skarmory and me have got your back,” Rainbow Dash said as she watched Skarmory perform an aileron roll in an effort to throw toff the Sneasel still hanging onto it. Unfortunately, even only having one Sneasel to deal with was still proving to be enough to keep Skarmory occupied for the time being. Suddenly, as the Sneasel advanced on Shroomish and Rainbow Dash tried to think of a way to help, Shroomish began to glow a brilliant white and stretched up until it had nearly tripled in height. By the time the glow had subsided, Shroomish had transformed into a strange combination of a mushroom and a kangaroo.

“Breloom,” the newly evolved Pokémon chirped as it shifted its stance into a somewhat awkward impersonation of a boxer. At first, Rainbow Dash found the overall effect to be more comical than intimidating, especially given the way Breloom’s stubby claws poked out from under its neck frill. This impression was quickly countered, however, as Breloom suddenly went on the attack, dashing forward towards Sneasel. As Breloom closed the distance, its arms stretched out and the claws on its right arm began to glow with a blue-white light. Sneasel scarcely had time to real before Breloom snapped its arm forward and slammed its fist into Sneasel’s face, sending the weasel-like Pokémon tumbling across the ground before it came to rest unconscious.

“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed before turning her attention back to Skarmory. Sadly, it looked as though Skarmory was still having a tough time with the remaining Sneasel. Long scratches could be seen on the surface of Skarmory’s armor, and despite its best efforts it was clear Skarmory wouldn’t be able to stay in the air much longer. “Hey, uh, Breloom, right? Do you think wyou could give us a hand one more time?” Nodding with understanding, Breloom readied itself as Rainbow Dash called out to Skarmory. “Hey! Skarmory! Dive down and try to come straight at us as low as you can!” Realizing what its trainer was trying to do (or simply too tired to care), Skarmory wheeled around before diving down towards the ground, only to pull back up at the last moment, leaving it skimming a scant few inches over the ground. Once Breloom say this it rushed forward and leapt into the air before delivering another strike to the last Sneasel. As the final opponent tumbled off of its back, Skarmory came to a rest at Rainbow Dash’s feet, battered and very much worse for wear. “Jeez, those stupid weasel-things really did a number on you, didn’t they? It’s a good thing Breloom was here to give us a helping right hook.”

“Breloom!”

“Anyway, you still did a good job, I just hope Twilight –” Rainbow Dash was abruptly cut off as a massive explosion ripped through the greenhouse.

*********

“Noibat, Double Team!” Noibat darted through the air, leaving copies of itself in its wake while Twilight watched with satisfaction. “Good, now the Sneasel won’t be able to counterattack effectively. Now that we’re set defensively, Noibat, Supersonic!” As Noibat bombarded the Sneasel with sound waves, Twilight allowed herself a smug grin. With the Sneasel now disoriented on top of Noibat’s decoy images there was little chance of the invading Sneasel would be able to make any sort of effective response. All that was left was to mop things up and then Twilight would be free to turn her attention to assisting Rainbow Dash. “Alright, Noibat, let’s get this finished up. Use-”

“Sneasel!” An angry snarl cut through the air as a particularly large Sneasel that Twilight hadn’t noticed earlier darted out into the open. Before Twilight could react, the new Sneasel rushed forward and used the head of one of its fellows a s a springboard to leap into the air and strike at Noibat.

“Gah! How did I miss that one? Okay, Twilight, keep it together. I’ll just need to neutralize this one like I did with the others and everything will be just fine. Noibat, use your Supersonic to disorient this one too.” As it had done with the others previously, Noibat turned to the new Sneasel and fired off another barrage of sound waves. Unlike the other two, however, this new Sneasel was able to dart out of the way of the attack before blowing out a gust of icy wind at Noibat. Twilight could only watch as Noibat dropped out of the air and hit the ground as with a dull thud. “Oh no. Not good,” Twilight groaned as she recalled her Noibat. Frantically Twilight tried to consider her options, but as the Sneasel turned its attention to her, Twilight reacted on pure instinct. “Charmeleon, go!”

“Charr.” The sudden appearance of an irate Charmeleon forced Sneasel to its their approach, at least temporarily. Unfortunately for Twilight, it was at this point that the two Sneasel that Noibat had been battling earlier recovered from Noibat’s soundwaves, and the prospect of having assistance gave Sneasel an immediate and visible boost of confidence. The Sneasel, however, wasn’t the only one feeling an increase in confidence.

“Charmeleon, use Ember,” Twilight commanded firmly. Despite letting out a snort of annoyance, Charmeleon obediently snapped its tail forward, sending a shower of burning cinders towards one of the two Sneasel coming to back up their apparent leader. This proved to be enough to convince it that aiding its ally wasn’t worth the trouble and the injured Pokémon swiftly fled. “There, that’s one down, only two more to go,” Twilight said, prompting another irritated growl from Charmeleon.

This victory proved to be all too fleeting as both Sneasel suddenly dash forward without any warning. Moving too fast for either Twilight or her Charmeleon to track, the pair of Sneasel quickly flanked Charmeleon and viciously slashed at it with their claws before retreating just as quickly. Making things even worse, Twilight’s attempts to call out further orders were stymied as Charmeleon’s thrashing about sent clouds of embers in her direction as well.

“Gah! Charmeleon, quit it! If you’d just – ENOUGH!” Twilight yelled as her Z-ring erupted with power. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but it looks like you’re not going to leave me any choice! Charmeleon, get ready!” Realizing what was going on, Charmeleon grinned evilly as it started to mimic Twilight’s movements. Meanwhile, upon seeing this and recognizing what was about to happen, the Sneasel’s remaining lackey turned and fled as fast as it could. The ringleader, however, refused to run, and in fact choose to charge straight towards Charmeleon.

This would ultimately prove to be a poor decision.

“Charmeleon! Devastating Drake!” Twilight yelled out as she completed the final steps of her Z-move. Charmeleon, meanwhile, thrust its arms forward as a ball of glowing purple energy formed in front of it. In a flash, the energy of the orb burst forward, briefly taking the form of a dragon before smashing into Sneasel with a massive explosion.

*********

“Hey! Twilight! Are you alright?” Rainbow Dash called out as she made her way through the wreckage of the garden. “Geez, I didn’t realize Z-moves did this kind of damage when you used them inside a normal building.” As Rainbow Dash started to ponder the durability of the average gym, however, a sudden bit of movement near the ground caught her eye. One of the piles of debris left by Twilight’s attack shifted, and moments later a badly battered Sneasel could be seen pulling itself out of the rubble. “Are you kidding me? Skarmory, I know you’re pretty beat up, but-” Whatever order Rainbow Dash was about to give quickly became irrelevant as a Poké Ball sailed through the air and clocked the Sneasel on the side of its head before pulling it inside.

“Gotcha,” Twilight said triumphantly as her Poké Ball began wildly thrashing about on the ground.

“Hold on, you’re actually going to catch that thing?” Rainbow Dash said as she wrinkled her nose in disapproval.

“Why not? It’s better than just letting it run wild the way it was, and from what I saw its clearly a fairly strong example of its species,” Twilight replied as her Poké Ball finally came to a rest and let out its chime signaling a successful capture. “Anyway, between battling them and capturing their leader, I’m fairly certain those Sneasel won’t be causing anymore problems for the Pokémon here.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash said as she looked around at the ruined gardens. “Somehow, I don’t know if the Pokémon here are going to see this as a win.”

“Breloom!” The Breloom that had assisted Rainbow Dash earlier suddenly piped up as it shook its head. “Breloom Breloom. Breloom!”

“What’s it saying?” Twilight asked.

“How the hay should I know? I’m not Fluttershy, remember?” Rainbow Dash replied before watching Breloom for a moment. “But, I think its trying to say that everything’s going to be alright.”

Even as Breloom nodded happily at Rainbow Dash’s interpretation, however, the Roserade leader of the gardens came storming over to the group with Spike in tow. “Holy guacamole, what happened to this place?” Spike exclaimed.

“I may have gone a little overboard while I was fighting off some of the Sneasel that were attacking,” Twilight admitted sheepishly.

“If by ‘a little overboard’ you mean you broke out your Z-move to take down one of the Sneasel,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Yeah, that. I know things look bad right now, but now that the Sneasel shouldn’t be coming back, you’ll be able to –”

“Roserade!” the Roserade snapped as it stamped one of its feet. “Roserade.”

“I’m no Fluttershy, but I’m pretty sure Roserade’s saying it wants us to leave,” Spike said as Roserade jabbed one of its forelimbs towards the broken window.

“Yeah, fine. We’ll leave tomorrow morning once the storm’s clear,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. While Spike and Twilight nodded in agreement, neither wanting to escalate the situation any further, one individual didn’t seem to be as willing to accept the Roserade’s demands. The Breloom promptly hopped up to Roserade and began loudly voicing its displeasure, prompting an argument that no one else could understand a single word of. Despite this, when the argument finally ended and Breloom stormed off in a huff it was clear that things hadn’t gone well.

“Come on, guys, let’s head back to the lobby section and try and get some sleep,” Spike said before Rainbow Dash had a chance to voice her own displeasure. “We were gonna want to get up early to leave tomorrow anyway.” Rainbow Dash said nothing in response, but glared angrily at Roserade for several seconds before heading back towards the main hallway. Twilight, meanwhile, let out a sigh a she glanced around at the wreckage of the greenhouse’s interior before turning to follow her friends. Catching Sneasel was a definite step forward for her, but Twilight would otherwise be all too happy to put this entire experience behind her.

*********

The rest of the night went by mercifully uneventful, though all three friends could feel the eyes of the garden’s denizens staring at them the entire night. As such, by the time morning finally came everyone was eager to leave.

“Alright, so if I’m reading this map correctly, we should actually be fairly close to Florasburg at this point,” Twilight said as the group packed up their things. “We won’t be going on any sort of marked trail, but even assuming that slows us down considerably we should still be able to make it there by sometime tomorrow.”

“That’s good, at least,” Rainbow Dash said as she bent down to feed her Skarmory another berry. “Hopefully we won’t run into anymore issues before we get there’ I’m kind of running out of Sitrus berries here.”

“Yeah, we definitely could use a chance to resupply,” Spike agreed. “Hey, you don’t suppose –”

“Roserade!” The Roserade walked out into the open and impatiently gestured towards the door with one of its forelimbs as it scowled at the group.

“We get it, we’re going,” Rainbow Dash said as she stood up and hoisted her backpack onto her back. As she passed by Roserade, however, Rainbow Dash stopped to glare at the irritable Pokémon. “You’re a real jerk, you know that? And not about the whole ‘kicking us out’ thing, I can at least get why you’re doing that. But, you keep acting like a big bullying jerk to all the other Pokémon here and, eventually, they’re gonna get sick of it.” Roserade responded to this by continuing to point Rainbow Dash and the others out the door. The group proceeded to march on in silence as they started the next leg of their journey. They had barely gotten more than a couple dozen yards away from the building, though, before the sounds of something chasing after them caught their attention.

“Breloom! Bre Breloom!” the trio turned in unison to see Rainbow Dash’s Breloom friend bouncing through the snow in an effort to catch up with them.

“Woah, hey, what’s up?” Rainbow Dash said as she knelt down to look the Breloom in the eye. “Look, I get we didn’t really get to say goodbye or anything, but-”

“Breloom,” the Breloom responded as it shook its head, before gesturing towards Rainbow Dash’s backpack.

“Hold on, are you saying you want to come with me?” Rainbow Dash asked, to which the Breloom nodded happily. “Hah! Alright! Welcome to the team, little guy!”

Comments

[raven618]

Sneasel is my absolute favorite Pokemon.

[KnightMysterio]

Twilight really needs to repair her relationship with Charmeleon. Otherwise the moment it evolves its gonna try and eat her.

[invinible]

10951705

The canon height for Charazard is usually 6 feet tall.

[KnightMysterio]

10960553

Okaaaay, but what does that have to do with my comment?

[invinible]

10960940

Full grown humans tend to be between 5 and 7 feet tall.

[KnightMysterio]

10961158
...I don't know why telling me heights is relevant to my comment so I'm ignoring you from here on out.

[Xanderfox]

10962100
Eating a creature of the same size would be difficult for Charizard is the point.