• 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 15.5 - Taste of Battle

Little Lost Raichu

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Chapter 15.5
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Taste of Battle


Nica untied the collar around her neck, using her tail to lift it towards Thorax who in turn placed it inside his saddlebag. It actually felt odd no longer feeling anything on her neck. Ever since she was given this precious gift, its very presence calmed her down, ensuring her that she would never hurt any innocent creature or adorable little filly with electricity again. Without it she felt… naked.

“I’ll… stay on the sideline and judge,” Thorax said, walking towards a nearby stone while using it as a cover. “Play nice, and remember that it’s just a friendly duel between allies.”

“Sorry brother, but your small companion asked me not to underestimate her, or did you translate her words wrong?”

Thorax whimpered, giving his smaller friend a look filled with pity.

Nica took a fighting stance on her four paws, her tail raised threateningly. This was it. Either she would succeed and earn respect, or she would screw up and humiliate herself. One thing was certain, it was too late to back down. She took a deep breath, feeling her heart start to beat faster. Okay, stay calm. It may be my first fight since I woke up inside a dangerous forest, but I fought a lot in the past. My body is designed for combat.

“Brace yourself!”

Nica took two steps backward, but maintained her stance as her opponent flew up and was now charging at her from above. Her pupils shrank the moment three green fireballs shot from the changeling’s horn. She bent her right forepaw slightly and pushed herself to the side, making a few meters distance in a matter of second. Okay, my reflexes are kicking in. Just stay calm… Her thoughts were interrupted when the changeling made a quick turn and was but a meter away from tackling her. In act of reflex, she rolled to the left, feeling the wind on her body from above and dirt from under her.

“So you can actually dodge, good. You have no idea how many incompetent warriors from the hive don’t know the meaning of stepping out of the way from approaching blasts,” Pharynx said, giving the large critter a proud glance.

Nica looked up and allowed herself to calm a little as her plan seemed to work, but it was still a short-lived victory. If she stayed on the defense and kept evading all his attacks, her opponent would either get bored or annoyed. She needed to go on the offensive, whether she liked it or not. She closed her eyes and thought back to the moments where she had used electricity against the human girl, trying to do the same against the changeling and failing. A few bolts of electricity appeared on the dots on her cheeks and vanished immediately after.

“No counterattack? Am I out of your reach?” Pharynx asked, flying down at a steady pace. “Fine by me, I prefer direct combat anyway.” Bursting into green flames, he shapeshifted into a giant bug-like creature and roared.

Nica bit her bottom lip and her ears drooped. Her opponent had suddenly become at least four times bigger while staring at her with five eyes. Its build was wide in the middle, its color violet with black stripes, or maybe black with violet stripes? Not that the color mattered when two large blade-like limbs were on an intercepting course with her body. Counterattack, counterattack! she thought in a panic, thinking back to other moves she’d used as a Pichu. ‘Thundershock’ didn’t work, and next on the line was a ‘Quick Attack’. She closed her eyes and ran forward, trying to force a boost to her speed and power the same way she did in the past.

Opening her eyes, she noticed that she was very quick, but felt no different. She actually ran at such speed when she was escaping from the large beast in the forest. Making contact with her large opponent by simply running into him would most likely backfire.

Seeing as one blade was swung in her direction, she turned and dodged, using her speed to circle around the large opponent while evading its blades. Much to her surprise, Pharynx seemed disorientated, struggling to turn fast enough and keep up with her while in such a large body. It seems I earned myself a few seconds, I can’t let them go to waste.

Nica closed her eyes, thinking back to a time when she used ‘Spark’ as a Pichu. Being surrounded by electricity while tackling was certainly an appealing strategy against a nearby foe. Mimicking her past self, she turned and jumped at the giant monster from behind, pushing it forward a little. After bouncing away from the large beast, Nica’s feet pressed against the ground as she forced herself to stop.

Raichu lowered her head in disappointment as she failed once again. Even though she had crashed into her foe with all her speed, her size and mass weren’t good enough to accomplish anything. It was one thing to tilt a tree by accident, but against a battle-experienced beast she needed to unleash electricity and she needed to do it now.

Pharynx turned around and shapeshifted into another creature, this one looking like a tiger with two heads, the second head that of a goat, and a snake serving the role of tail. Despite having three heads, only one seemed interested in talking. “Using your speed and small size to outrun me? Clever, but unlucky for you, a chimera is perfect at hunting agile prey,” the tiger's head spoke.

Nica gulped and smiled nervously. Speed and agility was all she had, so if those were to fail, she would be in deep trouble. Closing her eyes, she thought of another attack. This one being way more powerful than the last few. But if she failed to perform a weak attack, how was she going to succeed at using a powerful one?

She opened her eyes and leaped to the side, evading the beast's clawed paw, only to push herself backward with a forepaw in time to avoid the snake’s bite. Performing a backflip, she landed softly away from her foe. There’s no time to hesitate, I need to at least try! Seeing as her foe quickly closed the distance, she jumped with more force, reaching over hundred of meters of height in mere seconds. The newly gained distance didn’t seem to help against five fireballs heading in her direction.

“That was a great jump, but it won’t help you if you won’t fight back,” Pharynx said in his changeling’s form before once again turning into the chimera, now running in the direction where he expected his prey to fall.

Nica yelped and waved her paws in panic. She was now above the ground with nothing for support, unable to move out of the way of the incoming long-range attack, and at least three fireballs were accurate enough to hit her where she was going to be after two seconds. Using her tail and paws, she braced herself for the impact.

The moment she felt heat and pain in her forepaws and on her belly, she opened her eyes and lowered her guard. Her body rolled in mid air from the recoil for a moment before stabilizing itself. The pain was short-lasting, confirming her theory that her body was greatly strengthened over hundreds of battles. Now focused on the chimera who was ready to jump at her the moment she landed, Nica controlled her own tail, slapping it against the snake’s head. Her body bounced backward in recoil, and sand started spreading around her paws.

“You call this fighting? You tickle me at best!” the tiger’s head shouted. “You said your size didn’t matter, but you’re doing a poor job at proving it.” He scratched the mix of sand and dirt with his claws. “If you’re holding back, stop it immediately! I’ll not allow such disrespect!”

Nica’s ears drooped and she looked at her foe in sadness. Just as she feared, Pharynx wasn't going to tolerate her if she stayed on the defensive. She needed to attack immediately. Closing her eyes, she ignored the approaching doom and focused on her memories, mimicking her past self. Tightening her paws, she yelled loudly as her body unleashed concentrated electricity, sending numerous bolts ahead of her.


The chimera stopped running as the pupils in the tiger’s eyes shrank. Just a moment after hearing a loud “Raaaaiiiiichuuuuu!” he was greeted by flashing electricity. Caught by surprise, he tried and failed to dodge, feeling electricity go through his entire body, pushing him backward as his clawed paws left trails in the sand and dirt. After a moment of fast breathing, he stood up on his shaking paws and shapeshifted back into his changeling form. “So... you were defensive for so long to anger me... and then attacked the moment I lowered my guard... I’m impressed,” he said between breaths.


Nica opened her eyes, watching in shock upon the marks on the ground left by her electricity. Had she really had such power inside of her all this time? Maybe she couldn’t use weak attacks because her body adapted to using only the strongest moves. She trembled at the very idea of the destruction she could cause.

“Ummm… Pharynx, you’re not hurt, are you?” Thorax asked.

“Are you kidding? I’m just warming up,” Pharynx said before flying up, shooting green fireballs from the air. “Long-range bombardment may not be as accurate while flying quickly, but I want to see you counterattack against a fast-moving target.”

Nica bit her lip and started running, leaping and backflipping in her attempts to evade the ranged attacks. For several seconds only one or two of her paws touched the sand at the same time, as she was constantly forced to push herself into another evasion maneuver. In a sense it felt almost like a mix between dancing and one-paw standing.

Nica looked up at the flying opponent while evading, finding herself light as a feather as her body started working on its own. The action, excitement and adrenaline, she felt so alive.

“Don’t bother with defense. I won’t fall for the same trick again. You may as well attack,” Pharynx encouraged, keeping his distance.

The long-tailed critter nodded, taking a short opening to use ‘Thunderbolt’ once more, this one weaker but faster to pull out. As she expected, it was evaded due to her foe’s speed. The exchange continued as both sides used speed and distance to evade each other’s strikes.

I don’t remember any more attacks I used in the past. It seems I can rely only this one for now, Nica thought before fully focusing on her opponent while considering her options. There wasn’t much she could do at such a distance as both sides had enough time to dodge, but was it a bad thing? She had plenty of stamina, so after ten or fifteen minutes, her opponent would start getting tired. It was actually a type of victory she would prefer. The problem was with Pharynx’s character. He was a warrior to the bone and wouldn’t be satisfied losing in such a way. Whether she liked it or not, she had to hurt him.

Nica’s ears drooped as she started to run forward before jumping towards the changeling at great speed. Using ‘Thunderbolt’ while shouting her name loudly, she unleashed electricity that vaporized the green fireballs in her way. Getting closer and closer while unable to change her course, she waited til the last second while tracking the changeling’s flying trajectory. One weak ‘Thunderbolt’ proved strong and accurate enough to push Pharynx towards the ground.

The moment Nica landed, she turned around and ran towards the crashing side. Did she use too much power? Was the changeling too vulnerable without shapeshifting into a bigger and more powerful creature? She glanced at Thorax for a moment, who remained calm behind his boulder, which seemed suspicious. Thorax was a very caring leader, so why hadn’t he run over to aid his injured brother?

Nica didn’t need to wait for an answer for long as Pharynx shapeshifted into the giant bug-like five-eyed creature from before. With a quick calculated leap to the left, she dodged the large blade-like limbs and countered with a weak ‘Thunderbolt’. As her opponent was still attacking aggressively, Nica performed a backflip, limiting the strength of her jump as being in the air for too long could give her opponent an opportunity to strike.


His large size and low agility made Pharynx an easy target as he couldn’t fly out of the way of another ‘Thunderbolt’. Covered in burns, he supported himself with his blade-like limbs just to stand still, now tired and in pain. Pharynx shapeshifted back into the chimera. “It seems brute-force alone won’t cut it. Let’s see how you handle a balance between strength and agility, battle-hardened critter!”

Nica stayed calm, her eyes narrowed as she stood on two legs, awaiting the strike. Bolts of electricity started escaping from the dots on her cheeks, while her tail was raised above her head and ready.

Pharynx swung his clawed paw, not fast enough as Raichu leap slightly to the side. His snake’s tail went for a poisonous bite, but its mouth was sealed as Raichu’s tail wrapped it. The tiger’s mouth opened as he tried to sink his sharp teeth into the soft fur with a quick bite, but his prey ducked and ran under his belly.


Nica wrapped her four paws around the beast’s belly and unleashed a weakened ‘Thunderbolt’. Using her tail, she pulled the snake, wrapping it around the rear paws of the beast as it lost its balance. Nica had to admit, the chimera's belly and sand made a soft combo. Despite the weight of the beast pressing against her little body, she couldn’t call this experience uncomfortable.

Bursting into green flames, Pharynx returned back to normal and flew up for several seconds, only to dive-bomb towards the large critter. Green flames formed around his horn and spread around his body. “Let me show you a very popular strategy among the swarm that we used to invade Canterlot.” He gritted his teeth and grimaced.

Nica looked up at the approaching danger and considered her options: She could use ‘Thunderbolt’ to finish the job as her foe was falling too quickly to dodge. Or maybe she should evade by leaping to the side at the last second, and than strike when her opponent would be wide open? But maybe there was another way to prove herself and end this fight without hurting the changeling ever more.

Spreading her paws and exposing her belly as if inviting her foe to hit it, she awaited the speeding bomb. No fear was weighing her down.

“Nica, what are you doing!” Thorax shouted, hyperventilating in panic. “Dodge, dodge, dodge!”

Two seconds later Nica felt as if a small meteor hit her belly with great force while pushing her into the sand. Her lips shut as she refused to scream.

Green magic and sand spread in a cloud around the impacted area, alongside some electricity.


Pharynx massaged his forehead and opened his eyes. Even with the changeling magic shielding him, he still felt the impact in his weakened state. He looked down in worry, afraid to see flattened leftovers of fur and flesh. His opponent had proved to be a strong adversary, and killing her was the last thing he wanted right now. He gasped upon seeing a calm smile as the critter was staring at him with no sign of pain… or maybe it was really good at hiding it. He tried to step back, only to grit his teeth as bolts of electricity went through his muscles, finding every attempt to move his own body to be difficult. His eyes became wide from realization. His body was paralyzed.

Suddenly, he felt Raichu’s tail wrapping itself around his belly and next aim at his neck with the sharp heart-shaped edge. His legs trembled from exhaustion and pain. There was no way he could free himself and avoid more electricity, and he didn’t have enough strength to fight back or enough magic to shapeshift. Paralyzed, hurt and tired, he was at his opponent’s mercy.

Raichu stood up and withdrew her tail, standing on the tip of her right rear foot and placing her left forepaw on Pharynx’s shoulder. She smiled cheerfully as a few bruises decorated her face and belly.

Pharynx took a few slow breaths and examined his surroundings, finding himself in a hole in the sand. The hole wasn’t deep and the material under his hooves wasn’t solid, but it didn’t mean that his final strike was weak. He’d put a lot of force behind this attack while delivering a direct hit against a much smaller being. Yet a mere look at the critter’s face told him that she wasn’t tired, and the emotions he sensed confirmed that Nica was no longer in pain. With narrowed eyes, he asked, “You’re not tired and can still fight, right?”

Nica nodded, and he could tell it wasn’t a bluff.

Pharynx keep staring at the long-tailed creature with a judging stare, only to smile proudly a moment later. “I must say, this was a good fight.” He raised his trembling hole-filled foreleg up to his armored chest. “You gave the flesh and magic of this old soldier a solid exercise.”

“Pharynx, Nica! Are you both okay?” Thorax asked, towering over them from his higher ground as he looked down into the hole. Without warning, he grabbed them both, standing on his rear legs while holding his brother and the large critter in a hug. “Oh, I was sooooo worried. I’m glad you’re both okay.” He released them both, only to grab Nica between his hooves, pressing her nose against his muzzle. “Why didn’t you dodge? Oh why, why, why?” He released Nica, who landed softly on the sand next to the hole. “And you, you’re going into a healing cocoon immediately. No patrol until you’re back in shape. Am I clear?”

Pharynx opened his mouth, but closed it a moment later. His brother was showing initiative and he didn’t want to ruin it, not to mention that his back and muscles were still stiff, paralyzed, and in pain. Even if being carried on his brother’s back into the hive was embarrassing, he was too tired to think about his pride. The critter who defeated him was walking next to Thorax, keeping them company.

“I must say, you’re one interesting creature. To think someone this small and lame-looking hid so much power.” Pharynx said, his tone more calm and curious.

Nica stopped walking on four paws, now walking on two as she hid a blush behind her left forepaw.

Thorax gazed upon the sky in satisfaction. “It has been so long since you spoke in such a calm tone. No anger, no malice, no annoyance. To think all it took was someone beating you at your own game.”

Pharynx rolled his eyes before giving Nica a curious glance. “Are you a soldier where you come from? Or maybe a famous fighter? Are you training diligently everyday to stay in shape?” If he had been defeated in a duel, knowing achievements of his opponent would put his mind at ease. After all, there’s no shame in losing against a stronger and more experienced being.

“Maybe she was, maybe not, it is hard to tell,” Thorax answered.

“That’s a terrible answer!” Pharynx commented.

“Sorry brother, but Nica’s memories are still sealed. There’s not much she remembers,” Thorax explained.

“What?” Pharynx blinked in confusion. Only Queen Chrysalis had enough power and experience to brainwash other creatures, but he didn’t remember her having the ability to seal someone’s memories. A number of theories started forming in his mind. “Maybe you saw something important and your enemies sealed your memories, or maybe you were too strong of a fighter and the weaklings struck against your mind instead.”

Nica shrugged, showing lack of information and clues behind her predicament.

“Hey, Thorax, if her memories were sealed, how did she remember about her own culture? You’re not pulling my leg, are you?”

The tall challenging looked around at the curious eyes of his subjects as he was about to step into his domain, or whatever called what was left of Chrysalis’ fortress. With no ceiling over their heads, it wasn’t much of a building in the first place. Taking a deep breath, he sped up and answered, “Starlight, the pony who helped me overthrown the queen, was the one who damaged the seal, and Nica has been recovering her memories at a slow rate ever since.”

Pharynx narrowed his eyes and glanced down at Nica with a judging stare, who looked away with drooped ears, clearly not interested in where this conversation was going. “When you challenged me, did you have all your memories of how to fight?”

Nica glanced at him for a moment and shook her head.

“So you challenged me to a duel, hoping that your instincts and abilities would come to the surface in the heat of combat?” he asked, noticing a hesitant nod. “Does this mean you were using only a part of what you’re really capable of?” His eyes widened upon seeing another nod. The creature who dared to challenge him knew she was a strong warrior, but didn’t remember how to fight. She challenged him knowing she would be at a great disadvantage, and yet still defeated him with ease.

Should he feel humiliated to be defeated by a little furball who not only beat him without breaking a sweat, but also did so with only a part of her real power? Or should he be impressed by the courage of his opponent for challenging him while at disadvantage?

Pharynx smirked. So many options opened for him. Learning about a new mighty race. Shapeshifting into such species to gain advantage in combat. Maybe he would even train Nica to help her unlock her full potential, and in return she would support the swarm. Having strong allies was important after all.

One thing was certain. Things were going to get interesting.

Author's Note:

Finally, after more than a week of being nearly defensless, Nica had her first taste of battle since she arrived in Equestria, now remembering how to use one of her moves, 'Thunderbolt'.

It turned out that she had plenty of survival tricks and was very tough, but needed an opponent for her reflex and skills to kick in. I hope this battle was enjoyable and outcome satisfying. Feel free to comment what you thought of this battle and who you were hoping would win.

Cheers.

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