Working Sinnoh With Skill(Old) - Chapter 10 (Patreon)

“All right, done!” Ash declared happily as he transferred the last of his Pokemon to the Oak Ranch. Turning, he smiled down at the only Pokemon he had left with him, “Pikachu is keeping Dawn company today, and I sent all the others over to the Oak Ranch to relax for the day.” The raven haired ranger continued, “Meaning, that today you get all my attention.” Ash finished.

“Chim!” Chimchar cheered excitedly, bouncing up and landing on his right shoulder.

“Hehe.” Ash chuckled at his latest Fire Pokemon’s enthusiasm, “According to the Pokedex, Chimchar are energetic and like to play a lot. So why don’t we go hit up the tree’s in the forest just outside of town and we can hang around there for a little while?” He asked the Pokemon riding his shoulder.

“Chim chim char!” Chimchar responded, nodding his small orange head rapidly in his excitement.

“Right then!” Ash agreed, his face splitting with an enthusiastic grin of his own, “Let’s go buddy!” He declared.

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Dawn sat back, using a fallen tree as a seat and watched fondly as Ursaring and Kabutops traded powerful blow after powerful blow with one another.

Those two, despite being her most recent captures were both without a doubt the most powerful Pokemon in her team.

‘But,‘ Dawn thought to herself as Ursaring clashed a Hammer Arm attack with Kabutops own Night Slash attack, ‘When it comes to Pokemon, just like Ash said power isn’t everything…‘ The bluenette’s thoughts trailed off.

Ever since she’d started training under her boyfriend. Everything Dawn thought she knew about Pokemon was proven near enough completely false and basically the thoughts of a literally inept trainer.

She’d thought she could just magically teach her Pokemon any move she liked and then they’d magically be able to use it in contests to make some kind of brain dazzling show.

How foolish she’d been.

It hadn’t been until Ash corrected her, that she learned the very basics of training Pokemon to compete in contests, never mind the advanced tactics. The power put into the attacks, the stamina of the Pokemon, the mindset of the Pokemon, the style of the Pokemon and finally the likes and dislikes of the Pokemon.

Those were just the very basics! She’d only just started moving onto the advanced training for getting her Pokemon ready.

For the most part, Ash wanted her to focus on Pokemon attack theory, and improving her battle experience.

She – and by extension her Pokemon – needed to know the perfect amount of power to use in the attacks, especially if she planned on fusing attacks together for a better performance. If she didn’t get that right, any attempt she’d go for would fail before it had even begun.

And then there was her battle training. Improving her battling skill as a Trainer and learning to adjust on the fly to the tempo of the battle. Then even further she had to know how, and just when was the right time to counter and use performance attacks to overwhelm her opponent.

And it was from there, that she learned another very important truth from her boyfriend.

“Look Dawn, don’t go thinking that the best way to win is to come in blitzing with over the top performances because it isn’t.” Ash told her seriously, “The one true phrase that you should always remember is ‘stick to the basics’.” He quoted, from where exactly she didn’t know but she listened with rapt attention anyway. “Always stick to the basics and you can never go wrong, and from the basics you can expand into more advanced techniques easier. Never ever start of blitzing with advanced techniques because unless you’re really lucky, more often than not you’re going to fail.” Ash finished, topping off his small lesson by leaning forward and planting a soft kiss on her forehead.

Just thinking on it made Dawn realize just how correct her boyfriend was. She’d thought from watching his performance with his Pidgeot at the Jubilife City Contest that he knew tons of advanced techniques.

And while he did, that wasn’t what he’d done. He just stuck to the basics. His entire performance was based on the speed and power of Pidgeot, and the trust both he and his Pokemon had in each other by being right in the middle of the extremely powerful attacks.

She was broken from her thoughts when she felt the ground beneath her feet begin to shake.

“W-what?” The blue haired coordinator stuttered as she jumped up. Pikachu and Piplup, who had been leaning against her, jumping up, body’s tense and alert as well.

A dozen feet away, Ursaring and Kabutops stopped their mock battle and looked around warily, slowly stepping back towards Dawn.

“What’s going on? Is this an Earthquake attack?” Dawn directed the questioned towards the yellow rodent at her feet, seeing as Pikachu was the most experienced Pokemon with her and would no doubt have the most knowledge on what was going on.

“Pi.” Pikachu replied, shaking his small yellow head in the negative. Tugging on one of her pink boots, Pikachu pointed in front of her over towards the distance.

And it was only then that Dawn noticed all the Pokemon with her were also watching in that direction warily.

Dawn felt her eyes widen in shock when she saw the cause of the pseudo-earthquake. Over past the clearing, out onto the massive grassy green field was what looked to be a ginormous Kingler made up of glinting metal.

And it was chasing after a much smaller figure, it’s claws swiping out and barely missing on each pass.

Dawn quickly whipped out her Pokedex. The Pokemon was familiar but she couldn’t quite place it.

She hit the scan button and awaited the data from her Pokedex. She didn’t have to wait long as a picture showed up on the Pokedex and the robotic voice began speaking, ‘Ponyta, The Fire Horse Pokémon. Its mane is made of intense flames. This Ponyta is Female and has the Ability flash Fire. Currently, this Ponyta has the ability to perform the attacks Flamethrower, Flame Wheel, Hypnosis, Agility and Double Kick.’

Ponyta was a rather small four-legged horse like Pokemon, however, its mane and tail were usually made up of yellow and reddish-orange flames unlike the Ponyta with a mane made up of blue fire that Dawn was looking at. Its fur was cream all over. It had four long legs, each ending in a single, gray hoof.

Dawn blinked, “But the Ponya in the picture has a mane and tail made up of red and orange flames?” She asked no one in particular, “That one over there has ones made up of blue flames, how’s that?”

As she thought, her mind drifted back to when she met Ash’s Noctowl. She had been so surprised when she’d saw that it’s colouring was completely different from others of its species, so Ash had explained to her that sometimes very rare Pokemon were born that that alternate colouring to others of their species.

“Should we intervene here?” Dawn asked the Pokemon around her. She wasn’t sure what to make of this situation, it was the first time she’d ever saw a giant robot Pokemon trying to catch another Pokemon.

Her mind was made-up though a split-second later when the fleeing Ponyta tried to jump, only for one of the massive claws of the robotic Kingler to bat it harshly out of the air and send it crashing into the ground painfully, where it lay unmoving.

Dawn reacted on instinct as the giant robotic Kingler closed in on the defenceless Ponyta, “Pikachu Thunderbolt! Piplup BubbleBeam! Kabutops Ancient-Power! Ursaring Hyper Beam!”

A brief moment of charge time followed before the attacks were launched and Dawn watched as a massive lance of glinting yellow lightning, hundreds of large glowing blue bubbles, a massive silvery boulder and a powerful wide-spread orange beam of destruction raced across the open fields.

The four attacks hit as one, and kicked up a massive explosion so high that the clouds themselves parted.

Faintly Dawn heard two enraged shouting voices high above as she herself started sprinting towards the downed Ponyta. She could barely make out the words before they went silent.

“I CAN’T BELEIVE I’M GETTING BLASTED OFF LIKE THAT BUFFOON JAMES!”

“SHUT UP BIFF, DON’T REMIND ME!”

“SCREW YOU CASSIDY, I’VE TOLD YOU LIKE A MILLION FUCKING TIMES THAT MY NAME IS BUTC-“

That was as far as the voices got before they ended up too far out of range for Dawn to hear.

She continued on unimpeded though, and quickly made her way towards the downed Ponyta, sliding down onto her knee’s as she reached the blue maned Pokemon and began to check it over for injuries.

“C’mon c’mon, please be okay.” Dawn chanted softly to herself as she pulled the Ponyta’s head onto her knee’s and made a make-shift pillow for the injured Pokemon, ignoring the very very hot sensation on her knee’s from the action.

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Ash let out a loud whoop of delight as he used a large branch to swing himself up and soaring into the air.

The raven haired ranger had always been a good climber, he had been ever since he was young. But ever since he started training with his Aura, his climbing abilities had increased ten-fold easily.

Lucario had taught him to allow the Aura to guide him. After a few months of training with his Aura, Ash had found that he could literally scale the side of a building easily, even when there was very little to grip onto on the way up.

‘The Aura is with me.’

That was the motto of an Aura Guardian. And now that he was at least adept in using Aura, Ash understood it and he also understood just why Lucario had told him to refrain from learning a fighting style.

The Aura was his guide. Trusting in the Aura would allow him to flow to it’s ministrations and the Aura would guide him into the best course of action to take in a fight. Whether it was a Pokemon battle, or a fight he was in on his own.

Ash had learned from Lucario that in ancient times Pokemon and Aura Guardians stood side-by-side to combat the rising darkness of an ancient evil. The name of the enemy had been lost to the ages, but it was rather well known that it was the Aura Guardians that turned the tide of the battle, and allowed Pokemon and humans to come out triumphant over their dark foes.

Lucario had taught him an ancient phrase, that the Aura using Pokemon had called a pseudo-prophecy.

“He who has mastered Aura, yet still bows to the Aura as his master and Guide will be named as the ultimate warrior. So has it come to pass, so it shall be again for he is Aura and Aura is he, they are one in the same the Ultimate Warrior Of Legend who banishes the ‘Darkness’.“

Suffice to say, Ash didn’t understand a great deal of the so called ‘prophecy’, but what he did know was that he could trust in his Aura, for it was with him and always would be and in the future he and it may become one.

Very cryptic, and he was still working on translating it by breaking the prophecy up, and hoping to find where the certain parts would match up.

Sadly, The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger hadn’t had much luck. But he wasn’t about to give it up any time soon.

He was rather stubborn that way.

Flipping in mid-air, Ash allowed himself to descend rapidly. Trusting in the Aura as it blazed in his senses, Ash reached out and grabbed.

The Trainer smirked when he found purchase on another branch and swung up and over, landing on top of it in a crouch.

Looking a ways behind him, Ash stuck out his tongue mockingly, “You better hurry up Chimchar, at this rate you’ll never catch me.” He called out to his approaching Fire chimp Pokemon with a warm laugh before rocketing from his position atop the branch and taking off even faster into the trees ahead.

He laughed in amusement and joy all the way.

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Dawn let out a sigh of relief when Ponyta came back to full awareness.

Jumping from her make shift bed on Dawn’s knees, Ponyta looked around at the blue haired trainer and the surrounding Pokemon warily. Muscles tensed as if to attack or flee at any moment.

Luckily, Dawn noticed it and began putting her lessons from Ash to use.

“Shh shh, there we’re not gonna hurt you girl.” Dawn cooed gently. Reaching forward the bluenette gently rubbed the side of Ponyta’s snout. “There ya go girl, we chased those idiots who were attacking you away.” She continued softly.

Well it wasn’t exactly a lie. They had chased them off into the sky with some super-charged attacks.

To prove what she was saying, Dawn pointed over Ponyta’s head to the side where the burnt and broken scraps of what was left of the giant robotic Kingler were laying in a heap.

Looking over at the heap of – now – junk, Ponyta whined in relief before turning and snorting happily at Dawn.

Dawn beamed back at the Pokemon. She hesitated for a moment when she remembered Ash telling her a story of him burning his hand on a Ponyta’s mane when he petted it because it didn’t trust him.

But the girlfriend of Ash Ketchum was no coward – well, for the most part – so she put on a brave face, hiding her worry behind a cheery smile and reached up, and ran her small hand through the fiery blue mane of Ponyta.

To her delight, she felt no burning sensation. It was warm, but more of a comforting warmth instead of a ‘your hand is getting melted off’ warm.

She was interrupted when Ponyta let out a soft whinny and nudged against her hip.

Looking at the Pokemon curiously, Dawn saw that the female Ponyta was pointing between her and it’s back over and over.

It took a second or two for the reason to click in Dawn’s mind.

“Are you saying, you want me to ride you?” Dawn asked, her voice hopeful. She couldn’t help her rising hopes that it was true, and the excitement that reverberated through her body at the thought.

Ponyta nodded her head and gave another whinny, this one louder, to confirm her theory.

“Oh gosh! This’ll be so fun!” Dawn said to herself in a jittery excitement as she gripped onto Ponyta’s neck and swung up on-top of the small Fire Horse Pokemon.

‘Thank Arceus mom had those Arcanine with her a few years ago, or I would have probably fell on my ass attempting that.‘ Dawn thought to herself with a sweat-drop. She could feel the phantom pain bruises she’d earned from falling off of those Arcanine the many times before she got the riding of the large canine Pokemon down-pat.

Thankfully, Ponyta was a lot smaller than the average Arcanine so it was a lot easier to swing atop the Fire horse Pokemon.

From her position atop Ponyta, Dawn looked over the assembled Pokemon with her, “You guys relax and do whatever you feel like doing as long as you don’t stray to far from this area.” The coordinator told the 6 Pokemon, “I’m going to ride with Ponyta for a little bit, ciao!” The bluenette bid goodbye.

Ponyta reared up on her back legs, high into the air before coming down and charging straight into a fast gallop across the large grassy field.

“Wow…” Dawn breathed out, feeling her long blue hair blow in the wind whipping past her, “I forgot how amazing it is to ride a Pokemon.” She said to herself giddily.

“Nyaaaaah!” Cheered from beneath her before picking up the pace and changing from a fast gallop to a full on charging sprint.

“Whooooo!” Dawn cheered right alongside Ponyta as they blurred across the grassy field at a blinding pace.

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It was as Ash swung up into the top of a rather tall tree that he felt it. His Aura senses blazed and raged across his mind warning him against a malicious and completely wild intent based being.

Not a moment later did a very familiar voice scream out over the forest he was in.

“CHIIIIIIIIIMCHAAAR!” Chimchar’s voice was extremely loud, but it was filled with fear. No, not fear. Complete, heart wrenching terror.

“Chimchar!” Ash shouted in worry.

Turning, Ash shot from the top of the tree he was in, bouncing from tree to tree as he rocketed towards where he could feel Chimchar and the being with malicious intent.

He felt it now that he was closer. It wasn’t just a being, three different beings with very malicious intent.

Closing in on the area, Ash allowed Aura to guide him and propelled himself forward into a flip landing crouched on a tree branch overlooking a ravaged looking clearing that was filled with slash marks all over.

Looking down, Ash felt his confusion grow as he saw three large Zangoose menacingly approaching his Chimchar who was curled up in a ball against a tree shaking in terror.

Ash had no idea why his Pokemon was so terrified, but he wasn’t about to let it stand!

Reaching towards his belt, Ash cursed when he felt no Pokeballs besides Chimchar’s and realized he’d sent them all away to relax at the Oak Ranch for the day so he could spend time with Chimchar!

“All right then.” Ash phsyched himself up, “I guess I’ll do this the old fashioned way.” The amber eyed Ranger finished, his voice becoming low and menacing.

Jumping high, Ash descended and landed deftly between his cowering Chimchar and the three menacing Zangoose.

Zangoose were fairly large Pokémon that had the characteristics of both the mongoose and feline species. Their fur was mostly white in color, but they possessed deep red markings on the face, chest, and forepaws, which had sharp turns and edges. The markings made it appear that Zangoose had been involved in a vicious fight and was covered in blood and scars. They had two apparently retractable, long, sharp, black claws on their forepaws that looked to be their main weapons in battle. Zangoose had large pink eyes, small tufts of white fur on their shoulders, somewhat rabbit-like ears, and large, furry white tails. They also had a pattern of four pink circles on the underside of their hind feet in a “paw-pad”-like arrangement and to top it off, from their lips jutted two sharp canine teeth each.

Ash bared his teeth at the three normal type Pokemon, “I don’t know what the hell you three were trying to do to my little buddy Chimchar.” He growled out at them as menacingly as he could, taking a step forward to prove his height and show that he towered over all three of them in an attempt to intimidate them, “But what I do know is, you three better back the fuck off! Cuz if you don’t I’ll skin all three of you and make a rug outta’ you!” The amber eyed trainer finished, setting his hands to his sides and lowering himself slightly into a stance in case they attacked.

His attempt at intimidation fell on deaf ears.

The leader of the Zangoose, the one in the middle snarled at him and launched forward, claws going with light blue energy.

‘Crush Claw!‘ Ash recognized from his experience, the attack was known to be he signature attack of the Zangoose species.

Ducking, Ash just missed having half his face ripped to shreds by the Zangoose’s razor sharp claws. Allowing the Aura to guide him, Ash spun in his low position, coating his left hand and right elbow in a coating of aura. Lashing out, Ash elbowed the lead Zangoose in the neck and sent it to the ground sputtering and trying to regain breath from it’s now hurt oesophagus.

Continuing with his spin he lashed out with his Aura coated hand and batted away a rather large orb of glittering, pulsing purple energy.

‘Shadow Ball!‘ Ash mentally catalogued. When he came out of his spin, Ash found himself facing his shivering in terror Chimchar and his Aura senses blaring across his minds-eye warning him about a powerful attack from behind.

Lightning quick, his body augmented by his aura. Ash reached down and grabbed Chimchar, before jumping at the tree in front of him and using it as a springboard to flip high into the air and land on top of a branch of a tree directly above the third Zangoose that just let loose a powerful orange beam of destruction. The launched Hyper Beam literally obliterated the tree into nothing but small pieces of charred bark when it impacted the tree and detonated.

Setting Chimchar down gently, Ash sprung back into action.

Jumping from the tree, Ash came down prepared to deliver an axe-kick to the top of the recovering Zangoose’s head.

But he was forced to come down into a hand-stand and spin out of harms way as the Zangoose who launched the Shadow Ball at him attempted to swing an over-headed fist glowing a bright white down on him.

The fist cratered ground beneath the blow. Ash sighed in relief when he used his hands to flip back to his feet seamlessly, “Damn, that was close; that Brick Break would have given me one hell of a concussion.” He muttered to himself, his voice tinged with a small amount of nerves.

He may have had Aura, but that still didn’t completely erase the old age thought that he used to have of Pokemon being much more powerful than the average human.

Ash had at most a split second to orient himself, before the lead Zangoose was upon him again. Blurring towards him, Zangoose lashed out with a barrage of clawed fists and kicks.

‘Close Combat.‘ Ash realized to late as he continued to attempt to weave between each blow.

His futile attempts at dodging were for naught though, and all Ash could do was coat the entirety of his body in a sheet of Aura and endure the blows Zangoose rained down upon him.

Finally, as Zangoose began to slow down with each wince of pain from Ash. The raven haired trainer saw an opponent. Allowing his mind to go blank, and trusting in the Aura to guide him, Ash allowed his instincts to take over.

Weaving to the right and dodging Zangoose’s final clawed punch, Ash situated himself and let loose a right hook, his arm and fist spinning to the side as it went.

There was a loud ‘CRACK’ sounding noise as Ash’s Aura augmented fist connected with Zangoose’s cheek and sent the leader of the three Pokemon back stumbling back a few feet, yelping in pain.

Smirking as the Zangoose collapsed in pain, Ash turned towards the other two Zangoose expecting them to show at least a sliver of fear from him taking down their leader with one punch, and what he thought was a broken jaw.

But no, the last two Zangoose were grinning maliciously as they thrust their arms forward, concentrated glowing beams of energy erupting from their red palms.

But it wasn’t Ash who they were facing, and it wasn’t Ash they fired the Hyper Beams at.

Ash, his face covered in a few bleeding gashes he’d received from the beating the lead Zangoose had dealt out, felt his blood run cold.

Because, it was Chimchar who was still shivering in terror at the sight of the Zangoose who they were aiming at.

“NO!” Ash screamed his voice hoarse in a terror of his own. He should have just grabbed Chimchar and ran! Why was he so stupid as to not think of that?!

Ash didn’t know what happened next. All he knew was that he needed to save Chimchar, his every fibre of being cried out for him to save his Pokemon. Protect those that trusted him as their Trainer.

And he found himself standing in front of Chimchar on the branch, no idea how he got there and with nary a second to spare. Still he didn’t care because he acted on the protective instincts that he had ingrained inside him for everything that he cared about. His mother, friends, girlfriend and Pokemon were his entire world.

Not even thinking about himself, Ash threw himself on top of a terrorized Chimchar and shielded his newest fire Pokemon from the powerful orange Hyper Beams with his body.

The attacks literally obliterated the tree beneath him and sent him soaring into the air, his back baring the brunt of the searing explosions from the powerful beam attacks.

Ash ignored the mind-numbing pain as he soared through the air, only reacting to tuck himself into a rather odd-shaped ball as he crashed into the ground harshly and protected Chimchar from both the attacks and the high fall.

Ash could barely feel his limbs.

The amber eyed ranger looked up as Chimchar tentatively crawled out from underneath him, before looking upon his battered and bruised body in shock.

“Chim..?” The small Fire Type trailed off, at a loss for words.

Ash managed a weak smile, ignoring the two Zangoose who were approaching them from a few metres away menacingly.

“Go..” Ash managed to cough out, blood dripping from his lip. “Run away Chimchar…I don’t know why…but they obviously terrify you…so run away and protect yourself…leave me here, I’ll…be…fine…” The raven haired trainer trailed off himself in nary a whisper, losing the strength to even keep his head up.

“Zan!”

“Goose!”

Both Zangoose sprang high into the air, descending towards Ash’s limp body with glowing claws and victorious snarls.

Ash, who was slowly fading in and out of consciousness, felt an explosion in Aura just in front of him, and heard a loud screeching voice.

“CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM-FERNO!”

Ash’s world exploded in a bright white light.

Looking up weakly, recognizing from the familiarity in the voice that the voice screeching was Chimchar’s, until it changed mid-way through Chimchar’s usual cry of his name.

Looking up through watery pain filled eyes, Ash was just in time to see the bright white die down, and where once stood Chimchar, now stood a whole new Pokemon.

The evolved form of Chimchar, Monferno!

Monferno was a chimpanzee-like Pokémon with baboon-like features. Much of Monferno’s hair was a bright orange colour, appearing shaggier on the top of its feet. Monferno now had an evident tail, unlike its previous form as a Chimchar. Its tail had a spindly flame at the tip, and the base of the tail had a patch of red coloration. Monferno’s snout, ears, belly, three-toed feet, five fingers and the circular marking on its palms were all a shade of beige. It had a spiky ruff of white hair around its neck and gold arm bands. Monferno had blue markings above its eyes and red markings between them on its face. It had small fangs, orange eyelids and a small crest of orange hair.

“Heh..” Ash smirked weakly, “Way to go buddy, now… show these fools… not to…mess with us!” He ground out, weakly pushing himself into a sitting position.

He didn’t know how, but the massive force of Aura Monferno gave off as he evolved had ebbed into his pores and was somehow healing his wounds at a steady rate.

Both Zangoose who had been blown out of the air from the force of Monferon’s evolution growled angrily as they sprung back to their feet and charged back towards Ash, uncaring of Chimchar evolving.

They didn’t get far.

Monferno literally appeared right in the middle of both charging Normal Types, so fast he actually had Ash blinking in awe, ‘Holy shit! That was near enough as fast as Sceptile at max speed!’ He couldn’t help how damn proud he was, especially with how young Monferno was.

Fists glowing a blinding bluish-white, Monferno lashed out and slammed a haymaker into each Zangoose’s face sending them flying through the air and crashing together in a heap on the ground, groaning in pain.

The force of the punches, actually leaving a gale of wind behind it that Ash had to use all of his remaining strength not to get blown off his feet by.

“…The hell..?” Ash muttered to himself, gaping slightly as he brushed the hair out of his face, “How is he so strong so soon after evolving? How the hell did he use a double Mach Punch when he’s only just learned the move?”

He hadn’t seen such a massive jump in power in one evolution since his Treecko evolved into a Grovyle.

Jumping, Monferno spun into a truly massive wheel of fire and blurred forward, leaving trails of fire in the forest grass. Spinning rapidly, Monferno ran straight over the two crumpled together Zangoose getting them to roar in pain from being burned all over. Their white fur, singed black by the time Monferno jumped up and of off them.

“Fern fern, Monferno!” The newly evolved Fire Pokemon screeched out beating on his chest with his fists.

With his Aura, as low as it may be at the moment. Ash got the general gist of the message.

‘Beat it, or else!‘

The Zangoose were only to happy to oblige, jumping up despite their wounds they both bolted from the clearing, dragging behind their still moaning in pain leader.

“Ferno!” Monferno cried after them with another round of beating on his newly evolved chest.

Again, the message was rather clear to Ash.

‘Yeah, that’s what I thought you cowards!‘

Ash chuckled to himself, wincing slightly at the pain that reverberated around his bruised chest. Monferno hearing his chuckle, turned to him and quickly bounded over to Ash looking him over worriedly.

Chuckling a bit louder this time, Ash waved off his Pokemon’s concern. Sure he was still sore all over, and was covered in injuries but he trusted in his Aura, and from it he got the sense that he would be okay so he didn’t worry about it, “Don’t worry buddy.” Ash told his Pokemon, reaching up he ruffled the pointed hair atop his newly evolved Pokemon’s head in a show of affection. Monferno happily replied, leaning his orange head further into Ash’s rubbing head, “I’ll be fine, just need a little bit of rest.” The exhausted teen finished.

“Monferno!” The Fire Pokemon squealed out happily.

Ash continued to chuckle for a few more moments, before it died off when he realized something. He couldn’t stand up for the life of him.

“Eeehhhh…Monferno, would you mind helping me walk towards the Pokemon Center? I’m afraid I can’t quite get up on my own power at the moment…” Ash trailed off lamely.

Embarrassment didn’t quite describe the situation for Ash when all the bypassers they walked past towards the Pokemon Center in Floaroma Town decided to gawk at the teenage Pokemon Ranger leaning on a small monkey-like Pokemon for support as he walked.

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The sun was setting over the flowery field when Dawn finally descended from Ponyta’s for the final time.

All of her own Pokemon. Piplup, Buneary, Ursaring, Ambipom and Kabutops had retreated to their Pokeballs to rest before dinner, and Pikachu had likewise retreated into her yellow backpack to take a nap of his own.

Such a lazy mouse!

“Well, I guess this is it.” Dawn said as she rubbed Ponyta’s snout gently. Her deep blue eyes shining with unshed moisture.

Gathering all the courage she possessed Dawn gave the the best smile she could, which wasn’t much, and looked quite hollow and fake, despite her best effort. A good actress she was not. “Maybe we can met again sometime, neh?” The blue haired coordinate asked softly.

It wasn’t really a question, more of some hopeful optimism.

“Well…” Dawn trailed of sadly, “Goodbye Ponyta.” She concluded with tears pricking at her eyes.

She’d only known the rare coloured Ponyta for a few hours, but she couldn’t help bonding with the wild mare Pokemon and coming to enjoy being in the Pokemon’s presence greatly.

‘Hold it together girl!‘ Dawn scolded herself as she felt tears threatening to spill. Turning on her heel, Dawn began to walk away from Ponyta keeping the best stiff upper lip she could.

She only got a few steps before she was stopped though.

“Nyaaah!” Ponyta cried out, rushing out in front of Dawn and blocking her from going any further.

“W-what? Ponyta?” Dawn asked, confusion evident on her pretty face. “Why are you blocking me…?” She trailed off, her voice cracking near the end of her sentence from the sorrow racking her body.

In response, Ponyta walked as close to Dawn as she could and rubbed up against her gently. A moment of rubbing up against Dawn in affection later, Ponyta sprinted over a few metres away quickly where Dawn left her Pokeballs left out.

Reaching down with her snout, Ponyta gave one last loud “Nyaaah!” Before she touched one of the empty Pokeballs with her snout and was sucked inside quickly within a beam of red energy.

Dawn literally gaped in shock.

“What… The… Hell… Just… Happened?” The bluenette muttered to herself in shock. This had never happened to her before, she was accustomed to battling Pokemon and catching them after a hard-won battle. Not spending time with the Pokemon, and it willingly jumping into one of her empty Pokeballs!

A moment of silence later, when the Pokeball finished glowing red, rolling from side to side and gave a loud ‘PING’ to signify the capture of the rare coloured Ponyta. Dawn couldn’t help herself.

She burst out a deep bellied laughter, crying tears of mirth.

“I can’t believe this!” She managed to gasp out between laughs, “Just wait until Ash hears about this!” She continued through her laughter.

So saying that, she rushed over and grabbed all of her Pokeballs, including the newly filled one. Slinging her backpack containing Pikachu over her shoulder she took off towards the Pokemon Center.

She had to turn in early tonight anyway. She had a Pokemon Contest that she intended to win coming up tomorrow!