friendyousohard | 17th Spell: [Video/Action for Ponies] (Forward dated to Saturday morning)

[The gear clicks on in the middle of a room in the Pokemon Center. Someone's clearly using it, since the sheets are rumpled and the monitoring gear seems to have seen recent use, but no one's in the bed at the moment.

There's a splashing sound nearby, muffled by a door. The gear is moving very, very slowly towards that door.]

Mmmmmmffff... huh?

[Someone appears to have just woken up behind said door, as well.]

A-AJ...?

Um... h-hey there, Sugarcube. You sure had one crazy sleep, didn't ya?

I did...? Where am I? What's going on...?

[The gear is about halfway to the door at this point.]

You passed out on us right 'bout the time we got into Celadon. We were all real worried about you.

Passed out...? The comas!

[Twilight's voice suddenly gets much stronger and there's the sound of a sudden splash, as though she's just moving around in a pool of water.]

I had one! I went back home! Well... sort of. You know what I mean, right?

I... think so?

I saw so much... My brother, and Cadence, the Crystal Empire, even Discord, there's so much to... Um, AJ?

Discord? What in tarnation's he doin' back? We sealed him up for good!

I'll explain that in a moment, but first... what were you doing just before I woke up?

... Givin' you a bath.

[The gear has almost reached the door, when suddenly a large yellow foot slams down in front of it. It wobbles and falls to the ground, showing an Alakazam glaring down at a Slowpoke, which was carrying the gear.]

And what do you think you're doing?

[The gear floats up into Starswirl's hand...]

Apologies to any who saw this and wanted to speak to my trainer. She is currently occupied, but will be with you shortly.

[And clicks off.]

A few moments later...

[The gear clicks on to show a wet haired and slightly bedraggled Twilight.]

Ah, hello everyone. It seems I've encountered one of those week-long sleeps that we go into on occasion, and gotten some new memories of home. Honestly, it feels a bit strange to be back here... but I'll adjust soon enough. If anything important has happened in the past week, I'd appreciate it if somepo- someone could let me know.

... Also, if anyone has any ideas as to how to curb the tendencies of some Pokemon to abscond with peoples' gear and pull, or try to pull, obnoxious pranks on their trainers and others, I'd love to hear them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...yes, that is entirely possible. Honestly, if worst comes to worst I would suggest just leaving him in the PC for a while until you figure out a good way to properly discipline him.

I may have to do just that. I prefer to leave it as a last resort, but if that's what it comes to, so be it. Even I have my limits as to what I'm willing to put up with, despite the eventual strategic validity of the Pokemon in question.

I admit that I've been forcing myself to be patient and keep training my Pokemon even if they have particular personality quirks that make them difficult to deal with, but sometimes it really just isn't worth it until you can find a solution. Thankfully, it's only happened once, but...

Out of sheer curiosity, what sort of Pokemon was it that was giving you trouble?

...it was an overly affectionate Muk. I'm quite certain I don't have to elaborate any more than that.

Oh.

[She'll just... take a moment to visualize that, and shudder a bit.]

You... you have my utmost sympathies. I'm somewhat surprised you didn't end up in the hospital from poisoning.

So am I, honestly. I work with toxic substances regularly back in my world, but I have magic to protect me there-it isn't as though I've developed some sort of immunity. I suppose I was just... "lucky."

Well, better for luck to be on your side than against you. Still, even without that, it's not exactly a pretty picture. I imagine you lost several good sets of clothes to that sort of... affection.

He did the same thing as a Grimer, so I learned not to wear anything too fancy when I was training him while only suffering minimal losses. As I said earlier, though, I'm surprised I was as patient with him as I was...

Maybe you just didn't want to give up on him too quickly after the effort you put into catching him. Did you have a viable use for him on your team?

He was a fairly decent defensive Pokemon, he was the highest level member of my team, and I believe I only had six usable Pokemon at the time. Once I obtained a seventh, I decided it was time to wash my hands of him-both figuratively and literally.

The highest level... he was your starter?

[Ugh, that's not a pleasant thought.]

Good lord, no. He was one of the highest level Pokemon on my team-my starter was a Ditto and had proven to be extremely difficult to use, and I managed to capture a Hoothoot that I raised into a Noctowl shortly after I left New Bark Town.

Oh, well that's... somewhat better. Ditto still isn't all that appealing a prospect as a starter, though. It sounds like Johto wasn't too welcoming to you.

Given that I'm a breeder by assignment, I suppose it could have been meant as a moment of well-intentioned idiocy given how useful they are to that trade, but it made getting to the first town extremely difficult. ...furthermore, I arrived in Violet during the incident where trash was dumped everywhere...

Oh, how pleasant. Maybe managing to remain unpoisoned was the first bit of good luck you've had since you arrive in Johto.

To be completely honest, I've been having bad luck since before I even arrived here. It's just continued indefinitely instead of letting up once I left my world...

I'm sorry to hear that.

[She hesitates a little, not quite sure whether she should ask, before finally going ahead with:] Is it... something you'd like to talk about?

Well, a former student of mine stole a priceless magical artifact from me, presumably because I gave him a failing grade on a thesis that was factually incorrect on literally every level and forced me to make do with a vastly inferior replacement, which has made things rather difficult up to the point where my hotel exploded.

It wasn't very difficult for me to survive such a crude attack, of course, but it was the principle of the thing.

[... By Celestia's mane where does she even start. All of that makes her jaw drop but it's the last part that finally jerks a response from her.]

Someone blew up your hotel? ... Who? I mean, isn't that a little excessive?

[Or a whole lot excessive?]

I can't say for certain who it was, though I can rule several people out on the basis that it's far too underhanded for any of them. Anyone with a shred of honor would have come to confront me like a proper mage.

Underhanded almost seems like an understatement. How many people died in this assassination attempt?

No one, actually. There was a fire announcement before the actual explosion, so all the regular guests were out of the building, which ensured that there weren't even any injuries. From that, I assumed that things were going to be handled properly, but apparently not.

[She slumps in visible relief on hearing that, but she's still pretty rattled about knowing that a friend of hers was nearly assassinated.}

And... what happened after that? Or is that when you were taken to Johto?

I had to relocate, of course. Like I said, I was completely unharmed-that sort of thing is completely useless against a proper magus, but as the hotel was destroyed... well. I picked a more secluded base of operations, and shortly after that I was taken to Johto.

[video]

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