Sunset was not amused. Not amused at all.
The group had made their way back to Viridian City and, after a quick stop at the Pokémon Center, had found themselves a booth at a retro-looking burger joint. The interior was clean, and the waitress had been cheerful and friendly, taking the humans' orders with a bubbly smile.
Then she had offered to bring 'feed' for the Pokémon.
Twilight, already in the process of trying to reach down and show Sunset the menu, had been caught off guard, and therefore hadn't spoken up when Elaine and Trace had ordered a bowl for each of the Pokémon, including Sunset and the new Nidorans.
Silently stewing in what was becoming an increasingly foul mood, Sunset watched as Trace and Elaine brought out each of their Pokémon; Elaine her Bellsprout and Nidoran, Trace his Eevee, a Pidgey and a Rattata. Twilight followed suit and brought out her own Nidoran with an uneasy glance at Sunset.
"Okay, here's your Poké-pellets!" The waitress reappeared with a tray and a bright smile. Crouching down, she set several bowls full of little brown pellets coated in thick gravy on the floor. "I'll be back out with the burgers in just a second!"
"Um, c-could we have another of what I ordered as well, please?" Twilight asked quickly.
The waitress nodded. "Sure thing, I'll bring it out as soon as it's done!"
Sunset glared after her, half wishing that she could set fire to the woman's skirt with her mind.
"Are you not going to eat that?" The female Nidoran asked. She didn't bother waiting for an answer before grabbing Sunset's bowl and pulling it closer. "Mine now."
Slightly mollified by Twilight's quick last-second order, Sunset raised an eyebrow at her new companion. "Don't you want a burger or something, too?"
"No way, that human food is weird," Nidoran replied flatly.
Sunset shrugged and turned to face her next challenge.
The chair.
The darn thing was just high enough that jumping up was likely impossible. Teleporting up was obviously an option, but it took more effort than Sunset really wanted to put in, which just left grabbing Twilight's attention and being picked up.
Dignity or effort. It was a harder choice than Sunset was willing to admit.
"Do you want to come up here, or would you rather eat down there?" Twilight asked.
Sunset huffed and, deciding on laziness, held her forelegs out for Twilight to pick her up. At least Twilight was decent enough not to comment as she settled Sunset on the bench next to her.
It wasn't long before the waitress came back out, bearing a tray loaded with burgers. She placed one in front of each of the humans, hesitated, then plonked the last one down on the table in front of Sunset. "Enjoy!"
"Will do!" Trace said loudly. He set about his meal with a ravenous fervour, as if he hadn't eaten in days.
Elaine raised an eyebrow at him, then rolled her eyes before turning back to Twilight. "So, how are you finding Kanto so far? It must be weird, having so many Pokémon around."
"It's… yeah, it's weird," Twilight replied. "I imagine things are weirder for Sunset, though."
"Really?" Trace asked. "How so?"
"There weren't any Pokémon where they originally came from," Elaine explained.
"Hm?!" Trace tried to exclaim in surprise, but his mouth was already full to bursting again.
"Apart from Sunset, obviously," Elaine said sharply.
Sunset ignored them and concentrated on her food. As if this world hadn't done enough to annoy her yet, she was now having trouble with actually eating the meal in front of her. For a start, the burger was almost as big as her head. The fact that she couldn't use her magic to properly levitate the cutlery certainly didn't help.
"Do, uh… do you want me to cut it up for you?" Twilight asked.
"Please," Sunset replied with a nod and a resigned sigh.
Twilight quickly obliged, cutting the meal up into bite-sized pieces that Sunset could handle. When she was done, Sunset mumbled her thanks, remembering a second too late that Twilight wouldn't be able to understand her anyway.
As she shakily levitated a chunk of burger into her mouth, Sunset struggled to keep her temper in check. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.
In a dark alleyway, tucked away in the depths of one of Viridian City's residential areas, the Observer crouched, speaking into a small box clasping in their hand, "They are here. One young woman, and one small Pokémon. They are traveling with Priority Trainer 5 from Pallet Town. Priority Trainer 6 is present, but does not appear to be traveling with them."
'I see.' The voice seemed to reverberate through the Observer's mind. 'So, Keres did indeed choose to bring in some wild cards. Hmmm. He is getting desperate, now that he cannot cause another Dimensional Cascade without causing irreparable damage to the fabric of reality itself. This farce has gone on long enough. In all previous iterations, Priority Trainer 5 leaves Viridian City to reach Pewter City before Nightfall. Does it seem likely that the wild cards will accompany her in this iteration?'
"It is almost certain," the Observer replied.
'Good. Send a single Tracker to intercept them in Viridian Forest. Kill them.'
I'm not spoiler-tagging this because probably-Looker already told us it was coming, but seeing proof is still a whole other deal.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy updates for this story. However, might I suggest making them a bit more substantial than 800 words? Anything less than 1500 is pretty short.
Damn, Sunset's small size is really working against her. From her angle, she has to be treated like a toddler by Twilight.
Also, is it actually a thing for Pokemon to dislike regular human food? Is it not made mostly of the same chemical compounds?
Oh wow things are getting serious. I’m getting excited about the upcoming fight/assassination attempt lol.
Ahh, so the villains in this world are aware and even involved in the time manipulation. Interesting.
Though this makes me wonder, given that they're explicitly going for the kill, how will the pokemon battles work out? In the pokemon world, everyone, even the villains, for some reason adhere to a general code of pokemon battles: pokemon fight pokemon, not the trainers (a fact that in many pokemon crossovers tends to have the MLP characters standing around doing nothing). But these people seem fairly ruthless, and neither Twilight nor Sunset are from this world, so I wonder if there is going to be less targeting of pokemon, more targeting of trainers this time around.
Dang, Sunset REALLY needs to get stronger because it looks like the're in for some Pokemon Manga level of battles (i.e. Pokemon actually getting severely hurt/dying... am especially concerned since they've already established this followed the game rules where Pokemon can just shrug off electricity and fire so the villains must have some SERIOUS power)
I don't like the sound of that.
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As a general rule, I'm going to try and keep the chapter updates for this fic between 1000 and 2000 words. This chapter just kept annoying the heck out of me every time I tried to write it differently, so I went with a short update for now. The next one should be a much more palatable size.
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It doesn't look like their enemies are giving them time to get stronger.
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Ok. Cool.
Oh dang, we're getting the Pokémon multiverse involved too? Interesting. (For those not in the know, the lore in ORAS and Ultra Sun/Moon both implied the existence of alternate realities.)
Anyway, Sunset continues to be adorably flustered by this whole debacle.
Sunny's suffering continues. And the end wasn't ominous at all. Nope. Not a chance. Yes, yes it was.
I can understand Sunset not putting up with pet food, but she could at least give it a try. And I'm not sure how her digestive system will handle that burger... though there's also the question of what went into the thing.
In any case, let's see just how much these wild cards shake up the usual flow of events.
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Nah, she should be fine. Its just a burger, which is made out of.....wait. Uh-oh.
Good thing this is Gen 1. Hate to see what she would think of the more...food-like Pokémon like Slurpuff.
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Imply? They outright stated it in no uncertain terms. The only thing "implied" was that it applies to the rest of the series and individual copies as well.
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Oh, yeah. I probably could've worded that better.
*Observer is suddenly tackled by a Growlithe*
Growlth!
"You are under arrest." said an Officer Jenny stepping out of the shadows.
this is getting more and more interesting, please update this more often with longer chapters, i'm really enjoying this.
Are burgers in Pokemon made from Milktank?
That Pokémon thinks human food is weird?
Clearly, they never experienced the glory of ketchup.
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Same
I am calling it that sunset learns how to use fire next time and brun the would be killers.
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implied, no you can fly to different worlds in ultimate S/M.
So.... How much money do people want to put on Sunset evolving into an Alicorn when they’re all attacked?
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She’s likely gonna follow starter logic, and turn into her normal self (aka filly to mare). Her second evolution is gonna be alicorn.
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A more likely outcome then my guess, I suppose.
Rubbing my hands with glee.
What's the canon in this story for what burgers are made of? Is it a veggie burger, a non-Pokémon meat somehow, or a poor Miltank?
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You've got a choice in headcanon from veggie burger, lab-cultivated meat, or slowpoke tails...
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I'm just going to go with veggie burger, then, because I always assume Sunset is a vegetarian unless explicitly stated otherwise.
You are an evil evil person for cliffhangering there.
Ki-
K-Kill them? Kill them. Kill- Kill them, okay, I didn't know Team Rocket's former grunts found new lines of work, I guess killing a Cubone's mother was excellent work experience, Dear Arceus!!
Though I haven’t read this fic yet, I find it immensely funny how the upcoming Gen 9 games are called Scarlet and Violet
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That just occurred to me today, and I also came here to post about it. Out of all the colors they could have picked, it had to be the same two?
update?