the-fluffiest-trainer

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

I've been watching a lot of battles online lately, since I can't really fight myself for a while – battles from all sorts of different universes out there, just whatever I find on the internet – and for the most part, it tends to go basically the same way no matter where you are. Except for one thing: moves. In all my watching, this has been what's confused me most about other universes.

Here, it's simple. There's no authority on what's a move and what's not. A move is just whatever you can consistently pull off in a battle, and there's no biological or even legal limit to four. It's just that about four per pokemon, on a standard league team of six, gets to the limit of what a trainer can remember when strategizing. I can do plenty more than four things, but I don't expect Fluttershy to give me that much detailed direction mid fight, especially when we haven't even come up with a nice shorthand name for every last move.

But then, in a lot of other universes, it seems so rigid! Some worlds' moves really do seem like they're externally standardized, and the pokemon do them exactly the same way each time... I've even heard of some universes where learning some new technique means you're not allowed to use an older one anymore! If I try to hit someone with an exploding fireball, is that the same move as if I intentionally "miss" with it and explode the fireball into their back? To me, that's just a clever variation that takes one extra word at most for Fluttershy to suggest it to me, which is a low mental load for my trainer and I'd probably call it the same move, but in some universes that might be a full 50% of what I'm allowed to do in a battle. I mean, I'm sure it works fine if that's the format you're used to in your local league, but also I'm glad I live here and not there.

Anyone else have something different? I expect there's a whole spectrum out there across the multiverse, and now I'm curious if anyone has a setup notably different from anything I've seen.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

fox & juniper

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Oh no... I think this anon might be talking about my world. I don't know how similar history is between our two universes, but in this one, there was a war long ago between Kalos and Galar which ended with the King of Kalos creating an Ultimate Weapon to wipe out both armies and send Calyrex fleeing back to their home region. A well respected scientist and inventor here recently rediscovered and revived the Ultimate Weapon, intending to use it again, out of some misguided belief that Kalos's population is unsustainable.

My friends and I were there to stop him... not by destroying the Weapon, or preventing it from being used, but by redirecting its fire away from Kalos and onto my home world instead. Equestria was already dead, it made no difference... but still, Twilight and I did unleash that fire on hey no I'm still dictating–

My holocaster now. Before she works herself into another spiral.

All that she was talking about? Not even the main arson. Sure, the Ultimate Weapon has a lot of power output, but I don't know that I'd call it fire. More of a giant laser, really. The real arson was me defending the doors after we threw Mr. Evil Scientist Lysandre out of the building. Now that's something you should have seen!

...Except maybe not, actually. I can send you some videos but the end is uh. watch with caution? I always thought "too much fire" was a myth, until I actually did it myself. :(

Hey Pepper, have you heard the news from Kalos recently? ...I wouldn't really expect you to since it's probably not the Kalos from your universe, but you know, whatever. There was a lot of arson. I figured you might be interested to hear.

you have no idea how disappointed I was to go digging for this and find absolutely NOTHING about arson happening recently in kalos. I know this is the off season for the gogoat blog but what arson occurred pls i need to knowwwwwww

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Wow. What a day to not be checking rotomblr for a while. It must be the first of the month elsewhere in the multiverse, even though it's the fifth of the month to me. Here I am, hoping to get things at least a little bit back to normal, and suddenly everyone's got an evil twin. I should check in with Gwyndolin, shouldn't I? Hopefully her twin hasn't turned evil today.

Nothing too notable on my end, it's still just me and Twi and the team. Cyllage City is seeing a lot of people from Geosenge coming in and needing temporary housing because the Ultimate Weapon destroyed their homes when it came aboveground, but it looks like the authorities seem to have that generally under control. Sorry I've been a bit silent, it's been hectic trying to get Arden a cane and answer all the "just one more followup question" from Interpol every few hours, as well as trying to think about what we were even doing before all this chaos... It feels like it's been forever since I visited a gym, even though logically I know it hasn't been that much time at all.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

miss fluttershy are you okay

@gotta-pet-em-all

Personally, physically, I'm a lot more okay than anyone on my team... mentally maybe not so much, it's been a really stressful time, obviously, and it's not getting de-stressed nearly as quickly as I thought now that things are over. But we're all getting better... I think. Slowly.

I think what we need is just to get out of this hospital. Nothing's urgent anymore, I can carry Arden in a pokeball until we get her a cane or new casting stick or both in one. I'm going stir crazy in here with nothing to do but edit videos and post them into the past (incredibly weird website feature but whatever) and answer questions from Interpol and Kalos police over and over. I need to get out and see sunlight again, stretch my wings a little, you know? I wonder if I have to check out at the front or if we can just... leave...

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Seasons work normally in Unova? Finally, I thought this entire world did the weird gradual thing! Three months of a season, then everypony gets together and clears it out and puts the new season in place, and then three months of that, and so on. It couldn't be simpler really, especially after Twilight moved to Ponyville and really helped the teams' organization to get everything done within a day.

Maybe we should move to Unova. Something more familiar at least, and I wouldn't have to keep explaining to the police that yes we fired the Ultimate Weapon and yes it has the charge to be fired again but no Kalos is safe and nobody can use it again now and yes I know many people were hurt and a pokemon died and that's terrible but the alternative was letting Team Flare through to do what they wanted so I think we got the best outcome really and please stop bothering me and Arden and Twilight about everything please don't press charges about the illegal shit we did to protect the region–

...I think maybe I'm more stressed still than I realized.

At least it's spring, and that's nice.

Is. Is it Spring?????? Outside??????.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

[An audio recording is attached. There is some regular, quiet beeping in the background, suggesting the setting is still in the pokemon hospital in Cyllage City.]

Hi Twilight!

Hey! Good to see you again. Both of you. All patched up now?

That's right! The doctors said I'm fully healthy and ready to get back to competitive battling immediately!

No they didn't.

Alright, fine... they said I should take it easy for two to four weeks and you should bring me back in if anything got worse.

How are things back at the labs?

Well, there's good news, and there's bad news, and there's... well, there's a lot of news. So, the labs should be safe, I took the Ultimate Weapon key with me and left everything sealed with magic, and I've got Bryony and Celosia working on a way to convert the Weapon into something more useful. And I talked to Interpol on my way out, and they say they've captured Mable and most of the Team Flare members who were in the area. There's a few injuries from people hitting their heads as they passed out, but nothing too serious. That's the good news.

And the bad news?

They couldn't find Aliana. She must have woken up from the perish song just a little earlier than everyone else, and she escaped. No telling how many others she shook awake and took with her either. I still can't believe she sided with Lysandre against all of Kalos, she was always such a good friend...

I know. But we can't assume she'll cause trouble. After all, she's now without her leader and her science equipment, so what could she really do?

And there's more. I... I asked Interpol to let me be the one to tell you both this.

What is it?

Lysandre has second degree burns over much of his body, and is being kept in a medically induced coma. They say he's stable, but... not in good shape.

...Oh. He's alive, though. Professor Sycamore will be happy to hear that.

That's not all. One of his pokeballs sustained damage from fire, and it won't open. They think Lysandre's mienshao is trapped inside, fainted from battle. The ball has been sent to the Professor in Lumiose, because he might get it open safely and the pokemon in there would know him already and trust him. But then...

Then what?

The pyroar. He's... Interpol told me... Lysandre's pyroar didn't make it. He died before reaching a hospital, of massive blood loss from a neck wound. There was nothing the agents there could do.

Arden, you fucking killed him.

[Recording ends.]

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Hi Arden! Glad to see you’ve lost none of your spunk and relatively little of your blood.

And so we logically conclude that spunk must be contained somewhere other than in the blood! Further research is needed, but perhaps it's in the spleen... or maybe in the fluffy tail fur...

That's what I imagine Twilight would say, anyway. She's on her way here now apparently, and I'll have to pass on that the doctors said her emergency bandaging job was pretty good. Thanks for checking in!

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

[A photo is attached. It shows Arden in a hospital bed, with her right leg bandaged and elevated. She is giving a middle finger to the camera.]

I lived bitch

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Sorry for not giving you all updates for a bit. Everything's okay, we got to the pokemon hospital in Cyllage City and I was just so focused on making sure everything was alright and my team and Twilight's team and everyone were getting the treatment they needed that I just did not check rotomblr until I got a free moment, and it took a while to get one.

Arden's going to be okay, the doctors said, but she will need a mobility aid for a while. She didn't need a blood transfusion or anything. Apparently what she said at the lab door was right, most of the blood she was covered in wasn't hers. Which, on one hoof, that's great! My friend, my first pokemon, my reckless, heroic Arden, is going to recover from all her reckless heroics and we get to enjoy a safer Kalos at each other's sides. ...On another hoof, that was a lot of blood and it had to come from somewhere. I didn't see where they took Lysandre or his pokemon, I didn't even get a good look at them back at the lab... horrible as their actions were, I do hope they're getting the medical treatment they need too.

Anyway, I'd better go for now. Twilight said she'd call around this time with news from Geosenge, and I don't want to miss her.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

[A video is attached, once again from the labs' control room. Fluttershy is nowhere to be seen; there are only Twilight, Bryony, and Celosia standing together in front of the Ultimate Weapon.]

So. We'd better do something about this.

Right. It's safe to say Lysandre's plan is dead–

Good chance the man himself may be too, after that.

Interpol is taking him to a hospital right away. A well guarded one. Now, the Weapon...

[Bryony steps closer to the displays and inspects one of them.]

Still a lot of charge remaining, even after one shot and with the Legendaries escaped. A hundred and seven percent of the baseline Lys set for reducing the population to sustainable levels without wiping out everyone in Kalos.

Which means it would still do a lot of damage if someone got in here and activated it again.

[Twilight's horn lights up with magic, and the Weapon's key turns back to the neutral position and slides out of the keyhole. It floats through the air to Twilight's side, and she packs it snugly away in her saddlebag.]

And I won't let anyone do that. I'll figure out some safe place to keep that key, but also...

[Magic sparks again, and a shimmer of pink forms over the keyhole, blocking it with a kind of forcefield.]

Just in case.

Good idea. That thing's a menace until it can be properly tuned to–

[Twilight shoots Celosia a sharp look, and the scientist stops abruptly and clears her throat.]

Like I said, that thing's a menace.

But it doesn't have to be.

Just what I was thinking. Since the legendary pokemon are gone, and even if we had them, we couldn't give their stolen power back – right?

That's right. It's like donating blood. Anything taken out regenerates over time, and then you can't pump it back in without hurting them.

Then that power isn't going anywhere. And I don't care to leave Kalos with a bomb for anyone who decides to explore an abandoned building to stumble upon, so my idea is... these labs stay open. Not owned by Lysandre, not under the banner of Team Flare, but most of the equipment here is intact and there's still good work to do.

Bryony, Celosia, I think your first job should be to work on focusing lenses. Study the footage of the shot we fired today, figure out what shape will concentrate the Weapon's output as tight as possible–

I thought you didn't want it used again.

Not as a weapon. But if there's one thing I've learned from being in this world... one thing that fueled this world's technological advancement above and beyond Equestria's... it's electricity. Made from spinning a turbine, done by boiling water into steam. And it doesn't matter what you use to boil that water. You can burn rocks you dig out of the ground, you can use the wind, use the waves, use the sun... If we can focus the Ultimate Weapon's power, and turn it on just a trickle, it could supply electricity to the whole region.

I suppose so... How much would that be?

Hold on, let me do some math...

[Bryony taps a few buttons on her holocaster, then types a command on one of the Weapon consoles. The screen in front of her flips to another view, and then she returns her attention to the holocaster, now with a calculator app pulled up. There is silence through the room for a solid thirty seconds while she types.]

Well, alright then. Damn. Assuming perfect energy conversion, which you never should, this thing could put out enough electricity to cover Kalos's entire demand for 19 months.

And that's if you turned off every power plant in the region too. I guess there's something to this idea after all.

[Twilight's face lights up with a wide grin.]

Oh, good! I was hoping it would be something significant like that, to be a big help to the region while we drain the batteries here.

I guess that's the plan, then. You two, start work on converting the Ultimate Weapon into a generator, and as long as you're doing that I think I can keep Interpol off your backs. If anyone else from the Team shows up, you can have them help, but tell both me and the police first. Don't want any Lysandre loyalists trying to slip in, but we can't turn down talented minds either. Got it?

[The two human scientists exchange a look, and then both nod as Celosia answers for the pair.]

Got it... boss.

[Video ends.]

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

See, what you want to do is find yourself a carpenter. They're the experts on wood, plus they make enough custom mobility aids per year to have some experience. Wood is a popular choice for canes because it's so much lighter than metal, and it puts less strain on the body overall.

...You know, that makes a lot of sense now that you mention it. I don't suppose you'd know where I could find a carpenter in the general west-Kalos area? Not that location matters a whole lot when you know a pelipper, but still.

Oh, hold on, I think Twilight wants me in the other room. I hope we're getting out of here soon...

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Oh gosh, I'm sending my well-wishes for Arden! She deserves a good rest after doing so well.... and I hope she can find a better stick, too, that looked brutal.

Thank you. She needs a good long rest, and it's going to be a struggle getting her to take it. Battling has been her primary activity for so long now, and I can't imagine any doctor looking at her and saying she's good to keep doing it, not until she can stand and move unassisted again.

I wonder... she'll need a mobility aid, and she'll need a new casting stick for her fire after she broke the old one on that poor pyroar. And I know her original stick was just a random stick she picked up in Santalune Forest when she evolved the first time, but I imagine it still had a lot of sentimental value. There's no fixing it, but I'm just thinking... what if we got her a new stick that does double duty, something that helps her walk right now and then also works for battling when she's able to again? Something durable, and fancy, and that really shows off her dedication to becoming stronger and using that strength to protect everyone.

I'm... not actually an expert on delphoxes, Arden's the only one I've known, but I imagine to user her fire moves it would have to be fully wooden and not have a rubber grip or endpiece. Though I suppose that could be removable as needed. I'll keep thinking about it, I guess, but I do think she deserves a quality replacement and not just whatever happens to be on the ground. Both to help while she heals, and as a thank you for quite literally saving the entire region with her bravery.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

you okay, sweetheart?

...I'm fine. Tired, mentally more than physically, though I have been running around a fair bit today, but it's nothing a good night's rest can't fix. But everyone else...

As soon as Interpol takes our official statements, Twilight and I are heading out of this place, I think. We plan to go south to Cyllage, everyone's stable enough to make that short trip and then we'll see a pokemon hospital that's not quite as overwhelmed as the center here in Geosenge. I finally convinced Arden she'd be better off resting in a ball for a little while and keeping off that leg. But she'll need a cane, or crutches, or something, and there's not anything here even for me to use as a temporary splint or anything.

And once we leave... I hope Twilight has a plan for how to deal with this place. The Ultimate Weapon still has charge. I don't think Lysandre's in any shape to come back and try it again, but it still doesn't feel good to just leave that power laying around.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Pelipper mail! It’s from @the-random-mail-service

A singular sock

Oh. Of course. Nothing stops the random mail, not even the end of the world.

[A picture is attached. Fluttershy is wearing a single thigh-high pink and white striped sock on her left foreleg, in front of a background of heavy machinery and fluorescent lighting.]

One sock, the only thing to make it out of Equestria. One out of four, so it's not even usable as a sock, just as another bandage to tie around someone's wounds. And there's no shortage of those.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

have I ever mentioned to you guys that I love being a cane user

there are many benefits. Including:

-reach tall thing

-hit people with stick

-yoink object

-yoink pokemon

-third point of contact provides extra stability and you’ll be less likely than the non mobility aid using population to fall down on uncertain terrain

Use a mobility aid today. Become cool and sexy.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

[A video is attached, showing the Weapon control room from the security cameras. The ponies are there along with all of their pokemon, though most of the two teams are piled together by the consoles, half napping to rest after their ordeal. Arden's leg is heavily bandaged, and smaller injuries are also wrapped up on Keseph, Crystal, and Raya.]

[The side door opens, and a pair of Kalos police officers arrive with some arrested Team Flare members: the scientists Bryony and Celosia, and two grunts, all handcuffed and looking very displeased with the situation.]

[At the sight of the group entering, Osha mewls loudly and Fluttershy listens, then springs to her hooves and trots over toward the officers.]

Hi! Thanks for helping out here. Just one thing, sorry – could you please release these two, actually? The scientists here. They were actually helping us to stop the others.

I'm... not sure we can do that. At least, not without authorization. Can you show some proof that they were working against firing the Ultimate Weapon and not toward it? Though even then, the proper place to show that is at trial...

Uhh... my absol can testify? But if you can't understand her...

[Twilight hurries over to add her own thoughts.]

This place has security cameras, and they record audio as well as video. There's your proof. Also, I was there when Lysandre ordered them both locked up for refusing to go along with him.

Thank you, Twilight. And don't forget, he also fucking shot me with lasers.

Right, that too. I can confidently say Lysandre has disavowed both of these scientists and they would no longer be welcome on Team Flare.

And that was even before they helped Osha here knock out all the others trying to get into the building.

...Hmm. Alright, show me the camera feeds.

[The video cuts there, and picks up with a view of the security room. The two grunts and one of the officers are missing, but the officer who has spoken earlier is there, crowding in alongside both ponies, the scientists, and Osha the absol.]

Here we go... Let me rewind, how long has it been? Stars, feels like months just since this morning, we've had so much going on. Okay, found it, here's a view of the control room, where we just were.

[On the screen, a video recording plays from earlier in the day, just before Fluttershy entered and threw all of Lysandre's plans off track. The officer watches intently as both scientists are cast out and marched to the dungeon – and Fluttershy, too, is staring at the screen with her eyes narrowed.]

Well, that sure is proof. Still, procedurally, we arrest on suspicion and exonerating evidence comes out at trial... but seeing that, I don't think I'd really mind a shortcut. Just don't tell anyone, okay?

[The officer unlocks the handcuffs on Bryony and Celosia. Both scientists rub at their wrists. Meanwhile, the sound on the replayed videos has been turned down but Fluttershy is still watching intently.]

Thanks, Twi. We owe you one.

...I know this footage.

What was that, Fluttershy?

I've seen this before. I checked rotomblr a little while ago, and I remember reading back a bit and seeing posts that I didn't think I'd made, and this video was there.

Weird. But then, it is rotomblr...

[The police officer slips out of the room, and a moment later, Bryony and Celosia follow, leaving just the ponies and their pokemon alone.]

It's rotomblr, and that site is known for distorting time occasionally. What's a minute to one person can be a week to another, but this... if I'm right... Twilight, can you download all the security cam records from today?

I think so, yeah.

Send it all to me. I need to find all these video segments and tell the site to post them into the past. I already know exactly which excerpts to take, and when to backdate them to, because it's already there, but I need to actually do it now.

...Of course. You have to close the loops. Like that time I went a few days into the past and drove myself into a panic over some disaster, when it was that very panic that caused future-me's ragged appearance.

I wonder what would happen if you just didn't...

I don't want to find out. Send me all that as soon as it's ready. For now, I'm getting back to my team.

[Video ends.]