• Published 30th Sep 2017
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Little Lost Raichu - CommanderX5



Devoid of memories and found in the Everfree Forest, little Raichu is nursed back to health by Twilight and her friends. Little do they know about the importance of her past and how far she’ll go to repay their kindness.

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Chapter 8 - Let the Jump be With You

Little Lost Raichu

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Chapter 8
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Let the Jump be With You


<Princess Twilight, catch!> Raichu shouted in her squeaky and excited voice, pushing a red ball towards the alicorn with her paws. The ball itself was shining in the dark, which was a side effect from using a spell that massively increased its durability.

Raichu took a quick glance at the night sky to admire it, for the first time being outside of the castle to notice such an amazing view in full splendor. The sky itself was now filled with brightly shining stars with the moon being in the center.

Twilight swung her wing gently to stop the ball and bounced it up and down. “I must admit; athletic activities were never my favourite, but today I had a lot fun. I feel like a filly again.” She pushed the ball towards the strong filly with a swing of her wing. “Lily, catch!”

“I got it!” Lily shouted and balanced herself on her rear hooves. The moment she caught the ball, her attention fixed on Raichu. “I bet you won’t catch this one!” With a solid swing, she pushed the ball a bit above the ground. The very force behind her swing caused a wave of strong wind to spread outward, pushing dust and small pebbles in all directions. She yawned and rubbed her eyes with trembling forehooves a moment later.

“Raichu, I would step to the side if I were you.” Twilight bit her lip and covered her face with her wing. “I can’t watch…”

Raichu jumped towards the ball, trying to stop or at least slow it down with her own belly. The extreme speed of the ball and strong force of her jump caused another wave to spread from the impact.

The critter closed her eyes and grit her teeth as even her jump proved no match for the filly’s strength. She was sent flying up and backward with great speed for a few seconds before her legs touched the ground in a harsh landing. The bronze edges of her rear paws sunk deep into the dirt, leaving two visible marks on the ground and even shattering any small stone that got in the way.

Raichu opened her eyes and noticed that she was a few hundred meters away from the filly with smoke and dust spreading from the trails before her. Rubbing her rear paws against the ground with such force apparently increased her legs’ temperature, and she felt as if they were on fire. That’s funny… I feel as if being on fire isn’t new to me. It doesn’t hurt all that much anyway.

She glanced at Ponyville on the horizon, happy that their extreme game took place far away from the town, if only to avoid awkwardly crashing into somepony’s house.

Holding the red ball with her forepaw, she ran on three legs, very quickly closing the distance towards her pony companions. Using the force gathered thanks to her speed, she pushed the ball towards Twilight, who caught it with both wings.

“I think that’s enough playing for today,” Twilight said, pointing at the sky. “It’s late, Lily, your parents may be worried.”


Lily struggled to maintain balance, stumbling left and right with heavy eyes and nearly no stamina left in her. School had ended hours ago, and every minute since had been spent playing various games with her new fluffy friend with no fear of needing to hold back. A chance to use her full strength had proved too good to pass up.

Until now, interacting with ponies had forced her to use only a fraction of her strength. Fear of hurting others drained most of the fun while limiting her options.

Having a playmate of similar size who could handle everything she could dish out was a golden opportunity, and she had used it to the fullest, enjoying every moment of it. However, being strong as she was while not restraining herself had quickly drained her stamina.

Yawning again, she laid on the grass and closed her eyes with her head resting on her tail. With no more excitement and adrenaline keeping her going, she dived into the land of dreams. The happy smile was present on her face.


Seeing the princess approaching the filly, Raichu beat her to it and picked Lily up onto her own back. Even if this pony was slightly taller, her weight was still something she could handle. Besides, after being carried around on ponies’ back for days, it was her time to return the favor.

“I like your enthusiasm, but you must be exhausted as well,” Twilight said and levitated Lily from Raichu’s hold, placing on her own back. “I will take her back home. You can go to the castle and rest if you want.”

Raichu followed the princess, walking on two bruised legs. Now that Twilight mentioned it, she didn’t feel exhausted at all. For hours she’d played various games with a filly whose strength surpassed her own at least ten times over. While Raichu managed to lift over four hundred kilograms with great struggle, Lily at one point lifted three tons with similar effort. Game after game, the filly unleashed her strength and excitement in various activities.

Tug of war against her and the princess with no magic allowed didn’t last long.

A game where they pretended to be sumos and wrestlers proved extremely one sided.

Again and again, she experienced the filly’s strength. Yet her body endured. No bones broke and no electricity bypassed the magical collar.

Raichu was physically weaker, that was obvious, yet today’s experiences proved that she had more endurance and stamina than she’d imagined. The super strong filly was exhausted and deep asleep, and even the princess struggled to keep her eyes open, but she didn’t feel tired in the least.

“I think it will be faster if we fly instead, hop on.” Twilight stretched her wing and placed it on the ground in front of Raichu, letting her climb up through the soft feathers.

One flight, a few teleportations and a quick talk with Lily’s parents later, they were back inside the castle as Raichu climbed up onto her own bed, sinking her head into the soft pillow. The spider she befriended climbed up onto her belly.

<These ponies are truly amazing,> Raichu said to herself. She looked out the window and admired the stars. After all the stress she experienced over the past days, she finally felt at ease. <That filly’s strength was unbelievable. I thought my little legs were strong and dangerous, but for her it must have been a nightmare.> She sighed, now staring at her little companion. <Twilight and Starlight’s magic have so many uses. It can get you anywhere you want to go in less than a second, it damaged the seal that was placed in my mind, and I think that the amount of weight Twilight levitated today was just a fraction of what she can really do.>

She slowly closed her eyes, feeling jealousy towards the ponies. Super strength, the ability to fly, great utility of magic and levitation. And what did she have? The ability to jump extremely high, attack with electricity and a lot of endurance and stamina. All of those seemed like great survival tools, but were useless for anything else.

I’ve made many friends that I don’t deserve. I can’t just stay obedient and hope that ponies will tell me what to do, I need to show initiative, she thought, not daring to move as her belly served as a bed for her little friend. I need to embrace my skills. My training to keep electricity from hurting others was a good first step, but I must do more than that. She took a deep breath. Step one, get better control of my abilities, step two, repay the ponies any way possible. The plan is set and I won’t spare efforts in realizing it. She smiled and relaxed herself, now diving into the land of dreams. Until now she was lacking a purpose, a goal to reach, and now she finally had one.


“The time has finally come. Are you ready?” Astra asked, standing next to a waterfall, the very one hiding the entrance into the bunker. The noise of rushing water became the backdrop of their conversation.

<About time,> Pichu said with crossed arms, standing next to her trainer’s leg. For half a year she’d put a lot of effort into learning how to read and write, just to get the boring stuff out of the way. Her experiences with her trainer were… not as fun as she expected, and she could tell that the feeling was mutual.

She looked up at her trainer, satisfied to once again see her determined stare.

Apparently, humans could catch and train pokemon whenever they wanted, but they needed to reach the age of ten before they could go on an official adventure and participate in tournaments. Astra wasn’t as lucky since her parents hid her on this island two months before her tenth birthday. One year wasted on reading, eating and sleeping, half a year of struggle to catch her first pokemon, and another half a year used to prepare for the journey ahead. Just yesterday this human had her twelfth birthday with no parents to celebrate with.

When other starting trainers gained experience on their adventures and fought for the first spot at the Pokemon Leagues, Astra gained theoretical knowledge and planned her course of action.

“But first, I shall present to you my plan.”

Pichu sighed and lowered her head. Of course this bookworm would pull off something like that.

Astra sat on the ground and grabbed Pichu, holding her in her hands. She supported her back against the stone and placed Pichu on her knee. “Since you’re my partner, I tried to learn a lot about you, your evolutions, strengths, weaknesses and moves you can learn. I have a perfect plan how to make you strong.”

<Okay,> Pichu said, now looking at her trainer with full interest. <Go on.>

“While at the moment you’re very weak and fragile, after evolving into Pikachu, you’ll become a very fast attacker. Your durability and defenses will still be weak, but you’ll have stronger offense and a lot of speed,” Astra said, not taking her gaze away from those curious oval eyes. “Training your evasion and agility will be essential for you to avoid powerful hits, but we’ll also need to work extra hard to toughen you up. Electric types have only one weakness to ground type attacks, but as my partner you need to endure hits you can’t evade.” She looked at the sky, her voice now somewhat sad. “My mother… always said that the more we get hurt, the tougher we become. I fear that our adventure will be filled with such thorns.”

Pichu smiled. Being hurt didn’t scare her. She was going to become strong and tough, and she wasn’t going to let the tiny size and fragility of her body get in the way. Work through the pain.

“Since your strength will be in your offense, you’ll need to learn powerful attack moves. I think ‘Thunderbolt’ and ‘Focus Blast’ are the best offensive moves we should aim for, with ‘Dig’, ‘Spark’, Quick Attack’ and ‘Grass Knot’ being helpful in the middle way. I’m also considering ‘Volt Tackle’, but such a powerful attack require some durability to use, so it would hurt you more than help.” She narrowed her eyes. “I believe you know ‘Nasty Plot’ but didn’t use it against me. Am I right?”

Pichu nodded. She knew ‘Nasty Plot’ that would temporarily straighten her special attack, something that made up for her being one of the weakest pokemon. With fear that it would make it too difficult for the human girl to defeat her, she decided not to use it. The fact that this girl figured it out actually showed some promise.

“There’s also your final evolution that require a thunderstone, Raichu. The most interesting feature of your final evolution is a very long tail. I looked into tail-related moves and thought about teaching you how to use ‘Iron Tail’ while you’re still a Pikachu, so you can master it as Raichu.” Astra smirked. “Offensively, Iron Tail is strong but not reliable, but then an idea struck me.”

<Yes?> Pichu asked with wide eyes. With no thunderstones present on the island, none of her family or companions ever evolved into their final form. Astra’s idea sounded quite intriguing.

“Steel types are resistant to most attack types. If you used your very long and flexible tail as Raichu for defense while using ‘Iron Tail’...”

Pichu jumped in place, now that was what she was looking for.

“Since so many attack types aren’t very effective against steel type pokemon, using a steel move for defense will make up for your weak durability. You can evade powerful attacks with speed and parry weaker but more accurate ones with ‘Iron tail’,” Astra explained and rubbed the top of Pichu’s head, who for a change didn’t shock her in return.

<I absolutely approve,> Pichu said before pressing her head into the trainer’s hand as if asking for more.

“I also thought of something. Since you’re my partner, I was thinking of giving you a name, one I thought long and hard about. I was just waiting for a good moment to suggest it, and since you’re in good mood, I may as well do it now,” Astra said, waiting for Pichu to calm down her excitement. “What do you think of the name ‘Nica’? Do you like it?”

Pichu rubbed her chin, thinking. ‘Nica’ was a short name, not really all that special, but it was still a nice name. Even just having a name made her feel more special. She nodded in agreement and displayed an encouraging smile. <From now on, call me Nica!>

Astra smiled. “Nica it is.” She took Pichu from her knee and placed her on her shoulder as they now gazed at the tall mountain. “Before we leave this island, we need to get in shape and gather a team of our own. I know the area so doing so with you at my side will be a breeze.”

Pichu zipped open Astra’s backpack, digging herself in to pick up a notepad and pen. Being small slowed down her writing, but she didn’t care. Once finished, she presented the note to Astra.

“You want to know how we’ll leave this island and where we’ll go next?” she asked.

<Pretty much,> Pichu said from her trainer’s shoulder with a quick nod.

“A well trained water pokemon can do that, or we can make a boat. According to maps inside the bunker, the closest locations to visit are the Orange islands, Kanto region and Alola region. The Orange Islands have four trials and small championship cup, a good warm up before our main adventure. The Kanto region has its own league, we should go there last once we’re prepared. The Alola region is made of four islands with trials and challenges, and this is where my mother and father have their secret base. The fourth island actually since it’s nearly abandoned.” She paused, thinking for a moment about her own parents. “My mother and father hid me here for a reason… I’ll need to be very careful if I decide to go there.”

Pichu stayed silent, now understanding Astra’s dilemma. Her trainer was shut away from the outside world, separated from her family, and had no idea what kind of dangers awaited her. Becoming a veteran with competent team was the only option of facing awaiting risks.

“Time to face the cold. Half a year inside the bunker made us rusty, but not for long,” Astra said with a determined stare.

Pichu didn’t need to be asked anything as she knew what to do. With one quick jump from her trainer’s shoulder she grabbed the surface of the slope, her tiny paws now anchored against cracks in the stone. Jump after jump, she climbed up at a steady pace. The human girl wasn’t far behind.

With distance gained thanks to her head start, Nica stopped on a small stone platform and looked down at Astra. If what the Ninetales told me is true, your mother was strong and adventurous, pushing herself and her team to their limits, while your father planned great strategies from the safety and comfort of his own base. She took a deep breath, held her paws on her hips and smiled proudly. You seem to be taking example from them both, but will you just follow their examples, or will you surpass them?


Raichu opened her eyes and carefully relocated her little companion from her belly onto the table. Her returning memories proved more informative than she thought.

The Pokemon League, adventure, criminals, and so many regions. Was there some sort of a large continent over the ocean with different cultures and animals? Were humans special? They did create a bunker and small rounded devices that could transport large creatures without change in their weight, so no doubt they could build various buildings. They even had their own language and knew how to write. According to her memories she regained in her dreams, pokemon were like animals possessing great powers and survival skills, while humans were the ones with knowledge and creativity. Being a Pichu, she wanted a human to train her, to lead her on some sort of adventure, and accepted the name given to her by the human with pride.

Now that she thought about it, she now felt similar when interacting with ponies. They gave her shelter and fed her, and she wanted to be useful to them. Ponies are the owners, leaders, and her role was the one of a follower.

Nica smiled. She wanted to be useful, she wanted to repay the ponies and listen to them, but the first step was to master her own abilities.

She poked the collar on her neck and smiled proudly. Sooner or later she needed to practice how to command electricity at will, but it could wait for now. The most important ability she had besides using electricity… was jumping.


Nica looked down from the highest spot of the castle, the one with a small fountain and several sunbeds. The entire town and nearby forest were in her view.

According to her dream, being able to jump high proved useful when climbing up and was an important aspect of her mobility.

Even if right now it resulted in her crashing into ceilings or tackling ponies into walls, she couldn’t avoid jumping forever. She had to master it.

The distance from the ground seemed very long from her perspective, especially since she was rather small herself, but this didn’t impress her in the least. This castle had probably only twenty meters of height, not even a tenth of the height she could reach. It was a perfect height she could practice with.

Raichu took a deep breath. <I can’t escape from it anymore. I have to learn how to like ‘the jump’, love ‘the jump’, embrace ‘the jump,> she said to herself and clenched her paws. <Feel ‘the jump,’ be one with ‘the jump’, let ‘the jump’ be with me…>

She raised one of her rear legs as if trying to take a step, yet there was no surface to step on ahead of her. Using one rear paw she was now balanced on, she leaped forward, and a moment later windows of the castle blinked passed in the corner of her eye.

Nica landed on the ground quite softly with a weak thump, spreading sand around her legs. I think it took around three seconds. I wonder if I can save half a second of falling if I weaken my jump a bit. She turned around and jumped up, using only a calculated fraction of her strength. Though she put a bit too much force into her legs as she ended up ten meters above the fountain and fell into it for the second time. With a loud splash, she was now in shallow water.

Well… that could’ve gone better. Using a tiny fraction of her jumping prowess, she leaped out from the fountain, and took a few moments of shaking to free her wet fur from the cold water.

After once again looking down at the ground from atop of the castle, she raised one rear leg and leaped lightly, taking two and half a second to land on the soil.


Spike blinked in confusion. Just a moment ago -something- caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He looked away from his comic, now staring at the window in confusion. It had to be my imagination, he thought, only to be proved wrong as something zipped passed his window, too fast to make out.

“Okay, I’m sure I saw something,” he said to himself and stepped from his seat, approaching the window. He looked to both sides, and than down and up.

“Raichu?” Spike asked, seeing the critter’s tail and feet for a second before she vanished from his sight. His face became pale as he slowly lowered his head, not daring to breathe or blink while expecting the worst. But no, she wasn’t flattened, nor was she was lying in any kind of uncomfortable position indicating broken limbs or injury, the critter was just standing without care in the word. “Raichu, are you hurt?! Oh, that’s a stupid question… Just don’t move, I’ll get help!” Spike shouted, not wanting to take any chances. As he ran towards the door and was about to press the handle, a loud thud caught his attention.

Looking back towards the window, a few cracks on the wall and a thunder-shaped edge of Raichu’s tail caught his attention, only for said critter to fall down and grab the windowsill with the bronze edge of her paw. Did she just… crash a bit above the window, only to climb inside? Am I imagining things? Spike asked himself, still in shock. Raichu, whose body should lay broken outside of the castle, was now standing before him.

Raichu glanced at the cracked wall and muttered, <Slight miscalculation. It seems there’s still room for improvement.> She turned to Spike and smiled cheerfully. <You called?>

“You’re fine!” Spike shouted and jumped forward, tackling Raichu before embracing her. “I thought you were injured! What happened? Why did you fall? What were you thinking? Are you hurt? Do you need aid?”

Nica kept staring at Spike in confusion. <What are you talking about?>

“Were you trying to have a sunbath and tripped over? Were you sleep-walking? Don’t tell me you jumped out of guilt, you stupid long-tailed rat!”

<What? Now I’m even more confused,> Nica said before gently pushing Spike’s claws away, freeing herself from his hold.

“Where does it hurt? Here, or maybe here?” Spike asked as he grabbed and poked each of Nica’s limbs.


Raichu rolled her eyes, wondering what the big deal was all about. All she did was jump. What was dangerous in jumping from the top of the tallest building in Ponyville? She fell from heights ten or maybe even fifteen times higher with no injuries. Even Twilight and Starlight witnessed her jumping when she pierced through two floors and ceiling, or was it just one floor and ceiling? Not that it mattered. What mattered was that… Spike didn’t see any of that…

Nica gasped and her heartbeat increased in speed. Spike was deep asleep on the sunbed when she displayed her jumping skills, and he was absent from most situations where she displayed her durability. Not to mention that the young drake wasn’t with her when she was apologizing to school kids. From the young drake’s point of view, her innocent training was a near-death experience.

With her own eyes tearing up, she embraced Spike. <I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!>

To think a simple training exercise could turn into such drama, she thought. A quill and a scroll were needed in an instant as she had some explaining to do.


Spike was sitting on his bed with Raichu sitting on his lap while holding a scroll.

“You… can’t be serious.” He rolled the scroll up and looked into the saddened eyes of the critter. “You fell from a few hundreds meters with no injuries… how durable are you?”

Nica shrugged. <I’ve asked myself this question ever since I first opened my eyes, literally.> She wrote on the scroll while adding, <To be honest, the more accidents I have, the less I fear of getting hurt.>

After reading the scroll, Spike asked, “So the children you hurt forgave you, and now you’re trying to get better control of your jumping abilities.” The moment she nodded, Spike said to himself, “To think I almost had a heart attack for nothing.” He rubbed the top of Raichu’s head. “Seriously, your good intentions keep backfiring over and over.”

Nica chuckled. She had to admit, luck hadn’t been on her side for the past week, but she didn’t care. All she could do was to keep trying her best… like she always did. She massaged her forehead, feeling as if an important memory was about to reveal itself, but vanished just as quickly.

“Well, if jumping is what you’re after, go ahead, jump to your heart’s desire. I’ll just grab some popcorn and cheer you on.” He booped her tiny nose. “But next time you try to pull some crazy stunt, warn me, alright?”

Raichu stepped from Spike’s lap and nodded.


“Spike, Raichu!” Starlight shouted and stepped outside of the castle. Her attempt to find the critter indoors had failed and she could’ve swore that she noticed something suspicious zipping from one roof to another, jumping between numerous homes.

Her suspicions proved true as she recognized the little fluffy ninja. “Hey, what are you doing up there?!” she shouted, but her voice failed to reach Raichu’s ears.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked as she flew outside of the balcony, landing next to Starlight.

“It seems Raichu is jumping from house to house. We need to stop her before she causes a disturbance among the ponies or something.”

Twilight shook her forehoof dismissively. “There’s nothing to worry about. Pinkie jumped from one roof to another during her one of her best songs, ‘Smile, Smile, Smile…’ oh, good times. Other ponies even joined her.”

“Hey, Twilight, check this out!”

Twilight’s ears perked up as she recognized the voice. Only a moment later, Raichu jumped from the roof in her direction, landing in front of her with a loud thump. Normally, it wouldn’t be surprising as the critter proved to be extremely agile, if not for the passenger on her back.

“Cool, isn’t it?” Spike asked, holding Nica’s neck while his legs were perched on Raichu’s forepaws. While he was much heavier than Raichu thanks to his heavy scales, in terms of size he was just a bit taller. “She had a lot of fun, and even asked if she could take me for a ride. I think I even got a bit braver thanks to this experience.. that, or a bit crazier.”

Nica waved at Twilight and Starlight before returning her paw under Spike’s leg. She bit her lip and looked up, her attention now on the castle. Standing on the tips of her rear legs, she pushed herself up, taking a few short jumps. First onto the window, next onto the balcony and with a last jump she landed on the top.

Starlight laughed. “Well… I must say, I didn’t see this coming… ummm… Twilight, are you alright?” She looked at the princess whose eyes were wide and her mouth agape. She waved her forehoof in front of the princess’s face, with no response.

“Well… she’s broken,” Starlight said before levitating her teacher back into the castle. A mix of hot pepper and chili cure for Twilight was already in her mind.

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