My Little Pokemon

by Alabenson

Interludes II: Friends and Enemies

“Trixie, are you really sure that’s such a good idea?” Starlight asked as she and Trixie sat by their campfire.

“Are you kidding? This is quite possibly the greatest, and dare I say most powerful, idea that the Great and Powerful Trixie has ever come up with! You saw what taking on those silly gym things has done for Twilight, so just imagine what Trixie would be able to do after she earns a few badges of her own!” Trixie cackled with glee at the very thought. “I’d finally be able to beat Twilight once and for all!”

“And there it is,” Starlight sighed. “Trixie, I though you were finally over your whole rivalry thing with Twilight by now. I mean, let’s say that you did actually beat Twilight in a Pokémon battle –” Starlight was interrupted as Trixie let out a giggling squeal at the very mention of her besting Twilight. “Let’s say you did actually win, what would that prove?”

“It would prove that it could happen! That, if Trixie worked hard enough, she could really be better than Twilight at something!”

“What about stage magic? You’ve always been a better showmare than Twilight would ever be,” Starlight suggested.

“Has Twilight ever actually tried stage magic?” Trixie asked pointedly.

“Well, not that I know of…” Starlight admitted. “But, I did watch her give a presentation on Cutie Marks once, and believe me, she could’ve really used a few great and powerful pointers.”

“Heh. Still, it would be nice to finally be able to actually beat Twilight at something when we’re really competing. And besides, isn’t the whole point of those gym challenges to create a better bond with your Pokémon or something? That would be a good thing, right?” Trixie added.

“I…guess so, maybe? Honestly, I’m still not one hundred percent sure how all this gym stuff is supposed to work. Up until now, we’ve been pretty much avoiding the gyms we’ve come across. That said, if that’s really something that you want to try –”

“It is! It is!” Trixie said eagerly.

“Well, I guess it does at least sound like a better use of our time than constantly stalking Twilight,” Starlight concluded. Trixie was about to point out the crucial differences between secretly following one’s rival everywhere without their knowledge and simple stalking. Before she could, however, a blonde woman suddenly came tumbling out of the underbrush and into the clearing.

“Oww! Stupid bushes, this is why I hate having to walk everywhere!” the woman yelled before looking up at Trixie and Starlight. “What are you two staring at?”

“Someone who apparently needs to work on her balance,” Trixie snapped back as Starlight quickly intervened to prevent a fight from breaking out.

“Hey, no need for that. It’s dark and the bushes around here are pretty easy to trip on, it could have happened to anypony – I mean anyone, it could have happened to anyone!” As Starlight tried to cover her slipup, the newcomer sat up and looked at Starlight and Trixie quizzically.

“Huh, so, are you two from Equestria too?”

“Too? Oh, you’re a pony like us then?” Starlight replied with a sigh of relief.

“Yup, name’s Lighting Dust.”

“I’m Starlight Glimmer, and this is my friend Trixie,” Starlight said, shaking Lightning Dust’s hand.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie,” Trixie corrected with a slight huff. “Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”

“Wait, now that you mention it, I think I actually have…” Lightning Dust said.

“Really?” Starlight and Trixie replied in unison as Lighting Dust suddenly snapped her fingers.

“I remember now, you were the unicorn who did the whole thing with that Ursa Minor, weren’t you?” Trixie’s jaw involuntarily clenched as Lightning Dust continued. “Man, taking that thing on one-on-one must have taken some serious guts! Those things are as big as a house, aren’t they?”

“Er…yes they are! Even bigger, in fact,” Trixie “Despite the incredible danger, however, the Great and Powerful Trixie bravely faced the rampaging creature with the full might of her magic!”

“Nice,” Lightning Dust said. “It always kicks flank to run into somepony else who knows how to really live on the edge. Most ponies are too scared to do anything other than play by the rules like a bunch of little foals.”

“Well, if you want ponies that aren’t afraid to break the rules on occasion than you’ve come to the right place. Nopony can beat me and Starlight here when it comes to being completely reckless, especially when it comes to magic,” Trixie said proudly as she threw her arm around a slightly miffed Starlight.

“Not really something I’d want to brag about,” Starlight said as she disentangled herself from her friend. “So, I take it you got pulled into this place along with everyone else?”

“Yeah, I’ve been working on paying back an old rival of mine from the Wonderbolts Academy, but the Pokémon I’ve gotten have been having a little trouble getting with the program,” Lightning Dust said.

“If there’s one thing the Great and Powerful Trixie can relate to, it’s trouble dealing with a rival. Of course, when your rival is Princess Twilight things tend to be a little more difficult,” Trixie said, her voice positively dripping with false modesty.

“Hold on, you’re rivals with Princess Twilight?” Lightning Dust said as a sly grin slowly spread across her features. “Isn’t that a coincidence. That rival I mentioned earlier is a friend of hers. Say, maybe we should travel together, we might be able to help each other take our rivals down.”

“Ooh, I like the sound of that,” Trixie replied eagerly, only for Starlight to pull her aside.

“Would you excuse us for just one moment?” Starlight asked as she pulled Trixie a few feet away. “Trixie, I’m not so sure we should be joining up with her. Something about her just feels…I don’t know, kind of off.”

“What? Starlight, you just imagining things. Lightning Dust seems find to me, and I’m an excellent judge of character. Besides, what about the whole ‘giving ponies the benefit of the doubt’ thing? Isn’t that how we became friends in the first place?”

“I guess you do have me there-”

“Of course I do.”

“Alright, we can give her the benefit of the doubt for now and see how this goes.” Before the words had even finished leaving Starlight’s mouth, Trixie was already gleefully heading back towards Lightning Dust to tell her the good news. “I really hope we don’t regret this. Eh, I’m probably worrying about nothing. Besides, since when have I ever let worrying about regretting something stop me?”

*********

“Nothing’s gonna stop us now! Aquarius City here we come! Not to mention another gym badge,” Scootaloo cheered as she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders boarded the ferry at the Mercury City docks.

“Just remember, it’s my turn to take on the gym leader first this time,” Apple Bloom said. “That is, unless you want to try takin’ on the gym leader this time, Sweetie Belle.”

“Yeah, thanks, but no thanks,” Sweetie Belle replied. “Helping you and Scootaloo train is one thing, but I think I’ll pass on the full gym thing. It just seems a little too intense for me.”

Apple Bloom simply shrugged. “Well, suite yerself, but Ah really want to see how far Ah can get with all this.”

“Me too! Plus, I’m totally going to challenge Rainbow Dash if we run into her, and you know she’ll have been doing all sorts of crazy training with her Pokémon. Could you imagine what it would be like if I actually managed to beat her? She’d be all like ‘Whoa, Scootaloo, you’re the most awesome honorary little sister ever’!”

“Maybe you should focus a little more on actually gettin’ tough enough to take on Rainbow Dash before you start thinkin’ about how she’s gonna congratulate ya,” Apple Bloom teased. “Now come on, Ah heard some of the other people talkin’ earlier and it turns out this ferry’s got an arena inside, and Ah want to check out the other trainers!” Apple Bloom’s fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded eagerly in agreement as the three quickly made their way into the ferry’s interior. Sure enough, they quickly discovered that the bulk of the inside of the ship was indeed dedicated to a Pokémon arena. While not quite as impressive as the arenas the crusaders had encountered in the region’s gyms, it was more than adequate for the two trainers battling each other within.

“Luxio, use Shock Wave!” Most of the crowd who had gathered to watch the battle cheered as the feline Pokémon blasted its opponent with a bolt of blue lightning. Apple Bloom and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, however found themselves far more interested in the Pokémon’s trainer, a lavender-haired girl about their age.

“Is that…? Naw, it couldn’t be…” Apple Bloom said in disbelief even as a bespectacled, silver-haired girl came up to the mystery trainer and congratulated her on her victory.

“I’m pretty sure that’s them,” Sweetie Belle said. “We should probably head over and say ‘hi’, at least.”

“Yean, and besides, I kinda wanna see if Diamond Tiara wants to battle,” Scootaloo added. “I know she’s not really a jerk anymore like she used to be, but I bet beating her would still be really…”

“Cathartic?” Sweetie Belle suggested.

“Gesundheit,” Apple Bloom said. “And Ah can kinda get what yer sayin’, to be honest Ah think Ah might feel the same way. Anyway, even if we’re not gonna battle ‘em we should probably check with ‘em to see how they’ve been doin’. Those two aren’t exactly the roughin’ it types, after all.” Apple Bloom’s assessment was met with nods from her friends, and as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon moved away from the arena to allow another pair of trainers to battle, the Cutie Mark Crusaders headed to intercept them. “Hey! Diamond Tiara, is that you?”

“How do you know my – Apple Bloom?” Diamond Tiara exclaimed as she turned to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “How have you all been doing? It’s so nice to see you all,” Diamond Tiara said in the syrupy-sweet tone that had become her trademark ever since her shift in attitude. There was something about the artificial friendliness of it that made Apple Bloom sometimes question if it was that much of an improvement over being constantly called a ‘blank flank’.

“We were a little surprised to see you to be honest,” Sweetie Belle said. “We just figured that we were here because of our sisters, we didn’t know anypony else from class was here too.”

“Well, you three are the first ones from our class that we’ve actually seen,” Diamond Tiara admitted. “I think I might have seen mother and father when we first arrived here, but…”

“But you weren’t really lookin’ to make sure,” Apple Bloom concluded, suddenly feeling a bit more sympathetic towards her classmate.

“Daddy would probably worry about me too much to really let me explore this place, and mother would be pushing me to get involved with all that gym stuff so I could ‘demonstrate my superiority in a structured system’ or something,” Diamond Tiara said.

“So, you’re not challenging any of the gyms?” Scootaloo asked with a hint of disappointment, to which Diamond Tiara shook her head.

“Battling’s fun and all, but I really don’t see the point of taking it that seriously,” Diamond Tiara replied. “This is just a vacation for me, no pressure, no responsibilities, and definitely not stupid status stuff.”

“Gym battles aren’t stupid!” Scootaloo protested before sheepishly calming herself down. “But, I guess I can kinda understand where you’re coming from. So, you really haven’t seen anyone else from Equestria besides your parents?”

“Oh, I didn’t say that, I just said I hadn’t seen anyone from our class yet. Silver Spoon and I nearly ran into Applejack and Rarity a while back, but I don’t think they noticed us.”

“Really? You say Applejack? Where?” Apple Bloom asked eagerly.

“It was a while ago, at the big Pokémon Center between Mercury City and Keystone,” Silver Spoon said.

“Hey, yeah, we know that place. Sweetie Belle, isn’t that where you caught that weird, green Pokémon of yours?”

“Hey, Gulpin isn’t weird!” Sweete Belle snapped.

“Ah don’t know, Sweetie Belle, anythin’ that can eat Scootaloo’s cookin’ seems pretty strange to me,” Apple Bloom quipped, leaving Scootaloo to mumble protests that her food hadn’t been that burned as Apple Bloom turned back to Diamon Tiara. “Anyway, you said you saw them a while back, right? You wouldn’t happen to have any idea where they are now, would you?”

“Sorry, not really,” Diamond Tiara replied. “That was pretty much back right after we all first got here, and we haven’t seen them since.”

“Shoot. Aw well, it’s not that big a deal. Applejack can take care of herself just fine, and besides, if we did run into her, she might get all overprotective again,” Apple Bloom added. “Ah ain’t really in any rush to stop explorin’ this place, so it’s probably best just to sit back and let Applejack and the others fix everythin’ like they usually do.”

*********

“Are you positively certain you don’t want to just sit back and wait for Twilight and her friends to fix everything like you usually do, sister?” Luna asked pointedly. “It would give you more time to indulge in your research into this world’s confectionary offerings.”

“As I recall, sister, you ate just as many malasadas as I did,” Celestia shot back. “And regardless, while I am certain Twilight and her friends will resolve everything and return us all to Equestria eventually, I still have a responsibility to assure the other ponies here that everything will be alright. And, in order to that, I need to have a way of contacting everypony –”

“Hence why we need to work with your former pupil.” Luna said sourly. “Between the professor’s eccentricities and Twilight’s anxiety, I’m beginning to wonder if mental instability wasn’t a prerequisite to receive instruction from you.”

“I’m going to just chalk that comment up to stress and leave it there,” Celestia replied. “Besides, Professor Boffinspark’s behavior might be a touch odd sometimes –” Celestia was interrupted as a door leading into the hallway she and Luna were walking down crashed open as a motorized office chair burst through and went careening down the hallway past Celestia and Luna. Moments later, the contraption crashed its lab coat-clad occupant into the far wall, deploying its airbags a few seconds later with enough force to send it tottering backwards until it collapsed at Celestia and Luna’s feet.

“Well, the airbags deploy just fine. Just need to work on the timing a bit,” the semi-conscious scientist mumbled from his spot on the floor as Luna regarded her sister with a single raised eyebrow.

“Just a touch, sister?” Luna asked mildly. Ignoring the remark, Celestia reached down and hauled Boffinspark to his feet, giving him a few shakes for good measure.

“Professor, when you contacted us, you said you had managed to find a way to allow me to speak with the ponies who’ve been pulled here,” Celestia said, snapping Boffinspark back to his senses.

“Ah, yes, of course. I apologize, the chair was just a small side project I was working on while I waited for you and Princess Luna. In any event, I have managed to gain access to the communication systems used by the island, and you should be able to use them to selectively broadcast to everypony listed as having come from Equestria. Everything’s already set up inside and ready, you just need to give the work.”

Celestia took a deep breath and mentally readied herself to be the ruler her subjects needed. Stepping into the room that Boffinspark had careened out of, Celestia found herself confronted with a sprawling mass of computer parts and machinery, most of which she suspected served no purpose beyond adding to the general ambiance. Near the center of the clutter, however, was a microphone setup connected to a particularly large bank of computers. “I presume this is…”

“That’s where you’d speak into, yes,” Boffinspark said as he clambered inside. “I’ve already connected it to the League’s communication array and prepared the appropriate filters. All that’s left to do is throw the switch and you should be talking to everypony brought here from Equestria. The proverbial switch, that is, I didn’t have time to fabricate a proper switch.”

“Very sell. Professor, please activate the devise.” Boffinspark promptly crawled under the microphone setup, and a few moments and a distressingly loud electrical discharge later, the lights surrounding the microphone lit up, signifying its readiness. “Citizens of Equestria, this is Princess Celestia. You are no doubt already aware of the strange situation that we currently find ourselves in. I reach out to you all now to assure you that my sister, Princess Luna, and I are here in the world with you. Furthermore, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends a way to safely return everypony back to Equestria. For now, I can only ask for you to be as patient as you can and look out for each other. I promise you, we sill get through this challenge together.”

*********

For an international entertainment company, the Javik regional offices of Orbital Amusements were surprisingly understated, just a few rented floors in a nondescript office building. Of course, this made far more sense when on considered that Orbital Amusements was, in actual fact, largely a front for Team Rocket. Lucian, the administrator responsible for Team Rocket’s Javik operations, much preferred this low-key approach.

“The problem nearly every ‘team’ in the past has faced is that they were far too visible. Inevitably, this attracted attention, whether from the local league representatives or just some preternaturally talented ten-year-old. Regardless of who the attention came from, the result was the same. The utter defeat of the team’s leadership, shortly followed by its abrupt dissolution.” Lucian paused for effect as he regarded the two grunts standing nervously before him. “I would expect that the two of you could, at minimum, appreciate that much.”

“Yar, ye needn’t be remindin’ me of me old crew’s failures. I recall me fellow’s keelhaulin’ all too well,” King replied.

“Really? You’re honestly keeping up the pirate stuff in front of our boss?” Sandy asked incredulously. “Sir, do I really have to be partnered with this buffoon? He’s even worse than those idiots you picked up from Alola.”

“You’re in no position to criticize anyone,” Lucian snapped. “Between the debacles you’ve had in Keystone City and your botched attempt at robbing the Drakefang Monastery supply wagon you’ve managed to alert at least two of the region’s gym leaders to Team Rocket’s presence on the island. At least our recruits from Team Skull are smart enough to keep their affiliation with Team Rocket hidden while they’re making fools of themselves.” Lucian paused to take a breath and allow his insult to sink in. “Now, while the two of you have thus far proven thoroughly incompetent, I am generous enough to offer you one last opportunity to demonstrate that you have at least some redeeming qualities. I want you both to head back to Keystone City and wait for further instructions. You are absolutely not to attract any attention, at least not yet. We have an operation planned for the city in the near future, and I need every available operative ready to take part. Do you understand?”

“Aye aye, captain!”

“Yes sir!”

“Good. Now, get out of my sight, and whatever you do, don’t either of you dare screw this up. This upcoming operation has been ordered by Giovanni himself, and it’s far too important to be ruined for the sake of any petty crimes.”

Comments

[raven618]

The Princess speaks. That should get a couple of balls rolling.

[Xanderfox]

11146883
At least the Ponies will be looking for other Equestrians, I don't think everypony is comfortable wandering around like the main 6 or CMC some will just want to find some ponies the know and hunker down till Twilight fixes things.

Also SweetieBelle's Gulpin is more impressive if I can handle her cooking as well as Scootaloo's. Remember Sweetie burned water and liquifyed toast!

[Fanwriter]

Starlight you brainwashed an entire town no room to talk. Lightning has potential for friendship with these two but another neutral party is needed...Lightning needs to vent not bottle up...

Again not Somba or Crysilis bad....she is redeemable.

Also glad Trixie is finally taking on gyms. Sure she'd also take on contests in the future.