A third Fearow was hurled backwards into a mighty and ancient oak tree, slid down the trunk, and lay there smoking and moaning.
“And so it ends,” Luna declared with a satisfied nod. “Does any other step forth to oppose me?”
In a great circle in the trees all around the deep blue alicorn was a flock of Spearow, almost four dozen strong. The little brown, red, and white birds, normally belligerent and ill-tempered, now sprouted alternating looks of shock, fear, and awe. Interspersed within them were five Fearow, all but one now sporting fresh injuries. Naturally, all eyes soon fell on him.
“Who? Me?” the Fearow said. “Heck no! I’ve said for a long time we need some fresh leadership around here! And what could be fresher than a creep- er, awe-inspiring alien princess from another dimension?!”
“You never said any of that,” came the voice of one Spearow in the crowd.
“SHUT UP!!!”
“Very well,” Luna nodded once again. “It seems that, by right of combat, I shall claim thy former leader’s place at the top of this little flock.”
The alicorn princess took flight with an easy beat of her wings, rising up through the forest clearing. The flock tracked her as she rose, necks craning to watch as Luna found a strong branch far above those that they sat on. From her new pulpit, the flock’s leader began her inaugural address.
“Pokemon of Kalos. Spearow. Fearow. For far too long has this flock been nothing but a ragged band of vagabonds and rascals! Ask yourselves, my new subjects, for what purpose do you gather? That you might come together to build something great? Nay! That you might form friendships, and learn to delight in one another’s company? Nay! That you might protect yourselves from the harsh world beyond? Nay! Even that you might train together, to grow strong and delight in your might? Nay!”
Luna pounded the branch she stood upon, and a few leaves slipped their moorings.
“You gather together to victimize the weak, to steal what you can, and to bask in whatever spoils your leaders do not loot! You choose your leaders not for their ability nor wisdom nor strength of character, but simply because they can out-scheme and out-brutalize any who would deny them! Is this any way to live? Day to day, scheming and squabbling your way to supremacy over your brethren, merely to squat in a dark forest and fight over scraps? Falling upon travelers simply because they happened upon you? What gain you by this? You live in poverty, hated and shunned, and yet your leaders one and all merely set you all against another to maintain their unworthy leadership! Miserable, petty lives amounting to nothing!”
The Spearow were beginning to chatter among themselves, some wondering what this was all about, some wondering if it was time to bail.
“No more!” Luna declared. “As your new dictator, I vow that I shall rule with an iron yet caring hoof! No more will this flock be condemned to skulk in this miserable place, but stride boldly forth beneath the moon’s white light! I will teach you to be more than a vagabonds and ruffians living for your own petty whims! Though you known nothing but squalor and cruelty, I will teach you a true and worthy purpose! I will show you friendship and the bonds of brotherhood, and I will show you true strength! What you have seen thus far is naught but the least part of it! I will take this flock, and I will make it great!”
That, at least, the Spearow understood. Their chattering became louder, more excited.
“I am the princess of Equestria!” Luna roared over them. “And you shall be my knights!”
When Twilight next emerged from her Poke Ball, she was wearing a very different expression than the night before. So were Ash and Pikachu.
“Look Twilight,” Ash said with arms crossed. “Professor Oak told me how much you wanted to find your friend and go home. I get that, I really do. But,” he shook his head, “if you wanna travel with my friends and me to find her, you can’t act like you did last night. You understand?”
The purple alicorn bit her lower lip just a bit, and then nodded.
Ash smiled, shook his head, and then walked a bit closer to her. “I know this world has gotta be scary for you. You’re in whole new place, with a brand new attitude, but you don’t know anyone or anything. Your friend is out there and mixed up with a really bad group of people, I get that. You wanna get her back so you can go home together, right?”
Twilight nodded a second time.
“And we’re willing to help you with that, right guys?” Ash looked back over his shoulder at the three other humans there.
“That’s right!” said Bonnie.
“Absolutely!” agreed Clemont.
“We can’t just leave a princess in the hands of Team Rocket!” Serena clenched her fist.
“You see?” Ash looked back at Twilight. “We’re all willing to pitch in to help, aren’t we Pikachu?”
“I don’t know how much I trust her judgement,” the little yellow Pokemon looked skeptical.
“Right,” Ash continued on, oblivious. “We’ll help you get your friend back if you let us, Twilight, but you’ve gotta let us! You do want that, right?”
Twilight hesitated, saying nothing.
“Look…” Ash reached down to his belt, picking a Poke Ball. “If you don’t wanna stay with us, if you’d rather go your own way, then that’s okay. I won’t make a Pokemon stay if you don’t want to. If you want to, you can walk right out the door right now and go look for your friend by yourself. Or you can jump back in this Poke Ball and go back to Professor Oak’s place. He’s a great guy, I’m sure he’d let you stay a while. You can do any of that right now if you don’t want to be with my friends and me, but…” he frowned a bit. “If you do wanna come with us to look for Team Rocket, you can’t attack Pikachu or any of the rest of us, okay? I don’t know what that argument last night was about or how it works in your home, but in this dimension friends don’t attack friends.”
Twilight stared up at him, then down at the ball. She spared a glance to the Pokemon Center’s glass front door behind her.
“So,” Ash bent down and offered her a hand. “What do you say? Friends?”
“I…” Twilight looked down at her hooves. “I’m sorry about what happened last night. I… I wasn’t thinking quite clearly. I was just so scared for Princess Celestia, so angry at what happened the first time you met, that I didn’t properly consider all the circumstances that brought it about. I didn’t consider how long you’ve had to deal with Team Rocket or the rules of this world. I didn’t think about how angry you must have been that your friend had just nearly been kidnapped. I still don’t think what you did was right, but after thinking about it I don’t think you’re bad poni- er, people either. You did save a total stranger when you didn’t have to, after all.”
“You think we would have just let you die!” Pikachu looked shocked. “Even Team Rocket wouldn’t do something like that!”
“Anyway, much as part of me still wants to yell at you for attacking the princess when you obviously shouldn’t have, I can’t ignore the circumstances or what you did for me that night in the forest. If you’re willing to redeem your mistake by helping me to rescue her I’ll consider us more than even.” Twilight looked up. “So I guess what I’m trying to say is: yes, friends.”
Twilight reached up with one hoof. Ash smiled, grabbed it with one hand, and shook it firmly.
“Welcome to the team, Twilight!” He said happily, releasing her hoof after a moment and returning to his full height. “Now come on, I gotta introduce you to everybody else!”
As Ash led the group outside to release the rest of their Pokemon for a meet and greet of the newcomer, Pikachu sidled up alongside Twilight.
“So are you really sorry for what you did to me last night?” he whispered to her. “Or are you just wanting to use us to get your princess back and sorry you got shocked?”
“I really am sorry,” Twilight replied. “I shouldn’t have treated you like that. You did a bad thing, but I don’t think it was malicious on your part, just ignorant. My behavior was unproductive, ungrateful, and wrong and for that I apologize. Upon further reflection it’s Team Rocket that should bear the brunt of my anger.”
“Right,” Pikachu nodded.
“I mean,” she continued as they all exited the building, “it’s obvious they were manipulating you.”
“Rig- wait, what?”
“In hindsight it’s clear to me that they arranged that whole encounter for the sole purpose of baiting you into attacking Princess Celestia, presumably as part of their ingenious campaign of psychological warfare designed to undermine her will to resist.”
Pikachu felt a sweat drop forming on the back of his head. “You really still believe that Team Rocket are some super genius band of evil masterminds?”
“Think about it. First they kidnap you and start a battle to get your group all riled up. When you’re looking angry enough, they begin to ‘lose’ to get you confident, then call out a resistant Celestia. Having no clue of the true situation you think her another Pokemon and attack. Do you see the brilliance of it? Either she does nothing and allows herself to get beaten, thus giving them ammunition to fuel her rage against an injustice you perpetrated against her. Or she fights back and does battle on their behalf, crossing a major psychological line right then and there. And because you were already in a state of anger and battle adrenaline, there was virtually no chance for a peaceful solution! What is one more fake humiliation and little pain in return for gaining the allegiance of an alicorn princess?!” Twilight shuddered. “They’re fiendishly cunning.”
Pikachu rolled his eyes.
“Uh huh.”
Oh, Twilight...
The way Luna is going, I wouldnt be suprised if she managed to come up against a cerulean Hawlucha.
Then again, given she is building a collection of personal Pokemon and is fully capable of using items once she learns of them, the closest equivalent would have to be Mewtwo? Wonder if she is going to go for coherent sovreign forces directly, given the first Air Squad, go for Land, Sea and Magic equivalents, and keep the guerilla equivalent in Scouts and Special Ops?
I had a very messy viewing of the end of XYZ, watched the Japanese versions with English Subs because one lot is labled with episodes since teh beginning and the others are labled which season and which episode and theres occasional removed episodes and renumbering.
Twilights got a really entrenched world view there. she will be lucky that Celestia denying it wont give her a fatal aneurism. Rather, hope the resolution doesnt involve a plate of mashed potatoes and a baseball bat.
*sigh*
My god twilight can be such a dumbass at times.
Soon enough Luna will become a pokelord, to be feared in all of Kalos?
Twilight doesn't have all the variables for this equation...
I wonder if Ash has Charizard?
I was almost annoyed that Twilight was apologizing for Celestia being attacked by that yellow rat bastard, but then she just kept going. I think I can live with her admittedly somewhat skewed outlook on the state of affairs. Meanwhile
FurorPrincess Luna seems to be basking in the spotlight. I can't wait to see her unleash her little warband on someone deserving of it. Excellent chapter.8326690 she wasn't apologizing for the attack on celestia, but rather for essentially attacking pikachu.
also, what makes you so sure that whomever meets luna's warband will deserve it?
I've got to emerge from lurking to say that the last five or so chapters have really sold me on this story. I wasn't all that interested years ago when it was first posted, but I'm glad I gave it a second chance. This might just be the strongest interpretation of Lysandre I've seen yet, and the interactions between Twilight and Ash's allies have been nothing short of laugh out loud hilarious.
I'm definitely keeping an eye on this thing now, and enjoying every update too.
I crack up at Luna's line, but seriously, is it okay to have Luna use such a term? I would expect more Nightmare Moon using it. Then again I think we only have a negative view upon this word.
Also good Arceus, Twilight.
I hope Twilight can keep her head on till they get home.
Wait until she tells Pikachu that Celestia raises the sun. He'll be glad that they encounters were when she was still learning how to perform her Pokemon moved.
8326813
Well, monarchies are typically dictatorships, so it makes sense. The only reason dictators have a bad name is because of the more recent ones ending in major slaughter and war.
I'm sort of hoping that luna ends up making an kalosian... Kalosinian... Kaloasian? Anyway- an empire, it would be fun to see how that would turn out.
Twilight should put it like this.
"Then think like this, if Ash or that Oak suddenly appear and join that Team Rocket, don't you think that there must be something strange around?"
8326813
Dictator really just means leader with absolute power. We have a negative connotation for the word because most dictators hold onto their dictatorship through subjugation and extreme force.
Twilight's head is gonna explode the moment she finds out that Team Rocket are a bunch of loveable idiots.
8326813
Dictator didn't always have negative connotations. It originally referred to a magistrate appointed by the Roman Senate to rule with absolute power in times of emergency and was actually seen as something of a sacrificial and noble role. I imagine Luna is still somewhat attuned to a time where it meant something similar in her world.
She's not wrong? Except that they probably didn't do it on purpose.
Well seems the idiot ball is firmly attached to Twilight at the moment. Gonna need surgery to get it off at this rate.
8326897
I expect similarly Celestial will be upset that Team Rocket are thieves, she doesn't know that yet. Though she might just blame Giovanni being a bad influence.
Oh and let's remember Jessie and James are actual pretty good trainers... Just not very good at being bad guys. Course that's part of the joke, if they where good guys they wouldn't lose so much.
Twilight needs a snickers or something.
8327165
Ash could give her a soda, it raises pokemons' happiness.
Aaaand... Its over. Thats unfortunate. This story isnt dead is it? I really like it so far.
While I love the fact you are updating with a new chapter every day, it feels like you're going to burn yourself out and go on another super long hiatus.
8327259
The way he writes and takes breaks is his choice. He's doing it for free.
8327256
You are asking if a story who is currently getting an update every day is dead?
Ech! I'm with Pikachu at the end of the chapter
I love how Luna already has an army at her beck and call. I'll bet she's gonna storm in on some battle in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
8326897 No kidding
Well, she's at least CLOSER to the truth than she was before... About the only part that CAN'T be right is that plan being intentional.
but you still gotta chatch them all, to be the best that you can be?
Yes, the autho - I mean Team Rocket are fiendishly cunning. Obviously.
8327259
I think all of these have been pre written and are just being released daily.
Why is Twilight being such a dummy?? It feels a little OOC, at this point. Couldn't she have come to the correct conclusion, already? I mean, it's a distinct possibility, and Twilight is usually known for being able to account for at least most of those; is it really so far into the extreme that she can't at least consider it, perhaps realizing the truth of the situation and thereby relieving us, the readers, of having to suffer through another's stupidity?
Twilight is a total delight in this. So is Luna. So hammy in the best of ways.
8327026
Yeah, I have no idea how she hasn't come to the obvious conclusion that she's the one being manipulated yet. After all, if Celestia is perfect and immune to manipulation, yet on the other side of the conflict, then clearly Twilight must be the one in the wrong.
8327851
No, Twilight is very much in character. Freakouts like this have been a core part of her personality from day one along with fixating on an idea far past the point of reason.
8328015
Easy. It's not like Team Rocket is some great secret in Kanto, Professor Oak had had several encounters with them, Ash and co. saved her life when they didn't have to do anything, and of course he did just offer to let her walk out the door if she wanted to. Not that hard to figure out he's not a bad kid, even if a bit impulsive and gullible.
8328113
Oh please, that's clearly all part of their cunning master plan to turn her against her mentor. After all, Celestia is perfect and can do no wrong, so obviously Twilight must be the one being manipulated. Besides, they already accidentally admitted to attacking Celestia on sight which is clearly the mark of a horrible, horrible fiend, and they also said that Team Rocket would have saved her as well so clearly Team Rocket can't be all that bad.
Remember, we're dealing with panicky Twilight "logic" here. This is the same line of thinking that brought us such brilliant ideas as making parasprites eat buildings instead of food, going back in time to tell herself not to panic about the message from the future, and of course casting the "want-it need-it" spell on her Smarty Pants doll. Frankly, this line of "reasoning" is exceedingly tame and sensible in comparison to what she has come up with in canon.
This is so dumb. Ash saw a known criminal group within a restricted facility and acted accordingly.
Bwahahaha, the New new Lunar Republic rises.
8324685
I knew it was one of the beams but i flipped a coin and guess solar since... sun princess an all...
8327335
I didnt see that, sorry
Although that makes me incredibly fackin happy
Make Alola Great Again! #MAGA
I'm sensing a reference to 'Pokémon: The Johto Journeys'
Eh, I can't say I like how Twilight is handled here. A freakout is okay, but it's now dragging on a bit too long. She should know not to extrapolate too much from too little information and instead attempt to gather more info before judging.
8329140
The freakout lasted until the thundershock. She's been known to jump to conclusions regarding her mentor. I also don't think it's that obvious for her to extrapolate such a revered and wise one would join a bunch of mean, loser thieves easily or for an unknown cause, let alone a good cause.
Looks like the high hopes I had for Twilight last chapter (see 8324397) are utterly dashed. How can someone so smart be so dumb?
You're missing a comma before "Pikachu".
All hail Dictator Luna.
She seems the best adapted to the pokemon world.
Wonder if she bring other pokemons to her personal army.
nop
Actually, Twilight is actually being logical here, and has a point about giving Celestia a delimma. So, calmer Twilight = Better Logic Twilight. Too bad her premises are flawed...
That confrontation with Pikachu would have been much more hard hitting if Twilight would have added "- AND SHE WAS LIKE A MOTHER TO ME!" to her little speil.