Into the Unown Alt Ch - Ponyta

Author's Note

The alternative chapter of Nina catching a Ponyta that I promised. This chapter can be read in place of Chapter 123.

I didn't think the content was good enough to keep exclusive so I'm releasing it to everyone.

Also editing it ended up being more involved than I initially thought. Since the content was spread out across 3 chapters and I wanted to minimize repetition for a more enjoyable reading experience.

Plus it was an early draft, so there were lots of grammatical errors and typos. I tried to fix most of them but there's probably still some remaining.

Some of the factoids about the Rapidash line I will recycle in the actual main story so don't be surprised if you end up reading them again.

Also, Licky was meant to be a placeholder name until I think of something better. It's terrible, I know.

***

The next morning, Beverly and the twins flew off on their rental Pidgeot to the lake district of the Safari Zone, while Nina once again was zooming across the plains on a jeep. Except it was Charlotte who was guiding her today, since the woman wanted to play with the cute Dratinis as well. With Nina and Nairy with her, there was no worries that Victoria might react poorly to the unfamiliar Safari Ranger.

“Nair!” Midway through the trip, Nairy cried out and poked Nina in the shoulder with his snout

“Hmm… What’s up, buddy?”

In response to his partner’s query, Nairy simply directed Nina’s gaze to look behind them.

Nina squinted her eyes to see a cloud of snow being churned up in the distance. The source seemed to be a fiery figure who was loudly neighing at the moving jeep to attract the attention of its passengers.

“Miss Charlotte, could you pull over please?” The older woman readily complied with a look of curious amusement as the jeep came to a crawling stop.

Nina got off the car and steadily walked towards the direction of the pursuing Ponyta who eventually caught up and ran circles around Nina while happily neighing.

“Hey there, boy… What’s up?” Nina asked in her warmest tone.

“Neigh~” Ponyta eventually stopped circling Nina after having cooled down enough and came in close to nuzzle against her.

The girl giggled and gently caressed the horse Pokemon’s muscular neck. “Silly boy, are you looking for more Berries?”

“Neigh~” Ponyta reached up to lick at Nina’s face, eliciting more giggles from the girl.

“Alright Ponyta, here you go.” Nina said as she grabbed at the remaining few Berries in her Pouch. “ I don’t have much left unfortunately. And we have to go see Nairy’s family today. So I can’t stay and play with you for too long.”

Ponyta either did not understand Nina’s words or was completely unbothered as he happily ate off her hand. All the while, the friendly Pokemon was also constantly brushing his fiery mane against the girl to demand more cuddles.

“Alright, that’s the last of them.” Nina gave the little Ponyta a kiss on his forehead, earning her more licks in return. “Hehe… Are you sure you’re not part Lickitung or something?”

After spending a few more minutes playing with Ponyta, with Nairy joining in at some point, Nina said her goodbyes and turned around to leave. Only for the Ponyta to casually tag along behind her.

“I’m sorry, Ponyta. I can’t bring you with me. The place we’re going to right now is very wet and slippery. I don’t want to see you getting hurt.”

“Neigh~” Ponyta seemed unconcerned and just continued to nuzzle up against Nina’s chest.

Nina looked towards Nairy for help. “Nairy, could you help explain to Ponyta why we can’t bring him with us?”

“Nair?” Nairy booped at childish Ponyta to get his attention and began sounding out a few series of cries to convey his partner’s words. But at the end of it all, Ponyta simply titled his head in confusion and gave Nairy a little lick and a boop in return.

Nairy let out a laugh and reciprocated the boop before turning towards Nina. “Nairy nair, nair. Nairy dragon nair!” The blue serpentine Dragon mimed a series of gestures and repeatedly pointed towards Ponyta and Nina’s belt with his long slender tail.

“Wait, are you asking me to capture him?!” Nina exclaimed, bewildered. This was the first time that Nairy had ever advocated for someone to join their team. The girl sighed, wishing that Espy was here right now to help facilitate communication. “Are you sure this is what Ponyta really wants?”

Nairy nodded in response.

“But we don’t even know where he’s from. We’ll have to track down his parents at least, to see if they’re okay with this.”

“Nairy nair.” Nairy said to the Ponyta, to which the juvenile Pokemon simply neighed affectionately and nuzzled up against Nina some more.

Nairy turned his attention back to his partner and just shook his head with a cry.

“Are you saying there’s no need?” Nina asked in response.

“Dra!” Nairy nodded.

The girl then turned towards Ranger Charlotte to seek a second opinion, only to see that the older woman was smirking in the sidelines and holding an empty Safari Ball in her hand to offer to Nina.

The girl sighed once more and took hold of the proffered Safari Ball. “I’m never ever going to hear the end of this from Bev, am I?”

“Nair!” Nairy cheered out in excitement, prompting Ponyta to also join in with a happy little prance around his new trainer.

***

“Heh, horse girl.”

Nina ignored Beverly. The best way to avoid defeat was to not engage.

“Then she goes and puts her Ponyta in a Premier Ball too. How cliche can you get?” The older girl continued, reciprocating one of Nina’s more commonly used phrases.

Nina held back a frown. She had asked Ponyta, whom she now named Licky, to pick his own Pokeball. It wasn’t Nina’s fault that her Pokemon was attracted to a Premier Ball. The Ponyta had taken one look at Espy’s own Premier Ball and decided that he wanted to paint his own canvas as well.

That said, she did have a good time painting the Premier Ball with the twins. Licky conveyed memories of some unique Butterfree patterns that he encountered in the Safari Zone via Espy. But otherwise, he pretty much gave carte blanche for the girls to add whatever else they wanted onto his new Ball, which Natsumi did by painting flowers while Fuyumi painted snowflakes.

Speaking of the twins, Nina pulled them in for a hug while completely dismissing Beverly in her mind. “Take care, okay girls? You’re full-on Pokemon Trainers now.”

“We’ll miss you, Big Sis…” Natsumi whispered in a wavering tone, while the emotional Fuyumi simply nodded her head silently.

Since Fuchsia City was adjacent to Vermilion City, Nina decided to split up with her friends and take a Sky Taxi back to the Vermilion Flame. 

The original plan was actually for her to make a little detour to Lavender Town to catch her fourth Pokemon, hence why she declined Beverly’s offer to drop her off. Now though, she just couldn’t bear to be stuck with her insufferable senior apprentice in a Fly Basket for hours on end.

Nina gave each of the twins kisses on their forehead and gently caressed their backs. “I heard that we’ll be getting a new apprentice come the new school year. This one’s ten years old like you two as well. So you’ll not only have a new junior, but a new rival too. Try to be nice and not bully her too much alright?”

Fuyumi sniffled. “We’ll make sure to be good seniors to them just like you, Bis Sis.”

Nina smiled warmly and gave the older twin a little pat on the head. “I know you will. And make sure to shield the new girl from the bad influences of the other big sisters in the Gym alright?”

After another round of goodbyes and encouragement, Nina turned around to walk into the Sky Taxi port, while throwing a quick glance at the pouting Beverly along the way. She waved casually at the older girl as a peace offering but still chose not to engage with her to avoid hearing Beverly’s unimaginative quips.

The girl zipped up her jacket and tightened her scarf to once again endure another chilling trip on a Sky Taxi. In a way she was glad that she didn’t need to make the longer trip to Lavender Town. 

***

Licky let out a determined neigh as he dashed across the sandy coast of Vermilion City. Meanwhile, Nina was clinging onto Nairy in her wetsuit and rubber gloves whilst the Dragonair zoomed across the shallow waters alongside the sprinting Ponyta.

It was a good thing there was no one around on the beach during the tail end of winter, otherwise their little training sessions would have caused quite the commotion.

“You can do it, Licky. Just a little faster!” Nina yelled in encouragement. She wasn’t sure if Licky could even hear her over the sound of his hooves, but it was the thought that counted.

The Rapidash line loved to run, it was in their very nature. Licky, in particular, loved racing Nairy who was actually faster than him while in water. So Nina made use of that competitive drive in his training.

According to the information that Nina scrounged up from the Pokemon League’s database, Ponytas become faster with age. And much like how juvenile Dragons evolve from the first successful completion of a Dragon Dance. A Ponyta’s evolution was triggered when they could finally reach a certain speed and keep up with their Rapidash elders — at around 200 kmph.

It was an absolutely mind boggling speed, faster than most supercars from Nina’s old world. But it was important to note that adult Rapidashes could go anywhere up to 240-250 kmph, so 200 kmph was actually considered the bare minimum that a Ponyta needed to reach in order to be considered an adult.

As Licky’s hooves trampled on the sandy grounds of Vermilion Beach, clouds of sand were blasted into the air from the micro explosion of compressed flames that coated the Ponyta’s diamond-like hooves.

This was Nina’s clumsy attempt at trying to lay the foundation for her Ponyta to learn Extreme Speed. She had no idea whether or not it would be possible since the Pokedex stated that the Rapidash line couldn’t learn the move, but there was no harm in trying. 

The only real difference between Arcanine and Rapidash was that the former was only capable of doing short bursts of extreme speeds before tiring out, while the latter was more of a long distance runner who could go fast for a much longer period of time.

Worse case scenario, Licky’s explosive hooves could be used as the foundation for learning Flare Blitz or as a Fire Energy empowered Stomp.

Nina let out a bemused smirk at recalling how cute Licky looked when he first started out. The juvenile Ponyta had a lot of trouble controlling the strength of his Fire infusion at the beginning, causing him to often stumble flat on his face when he overdid it. 

It was a good thing that they were practicing on the beach, so all he got was a mouthful of sand and some minor bruises for his failure. The look of irritation on the clumsy Ponyta’s face was enough to make Nina swoon and coddle him every time.

When Nina felt like Licky was starting to slow down, she told Nairy to overtake his junior and go back ashore some distance ahead to intercept the Ponyta. This was to encourage Licky to go for one last fiery sprint while also giving the Ponyta a goalpost to aim for.

“Neigh…” Licky languidly circled around Nina to cool off his body while panting for breath all the while. The exhausted Ponyta looked up towards Nina with an imploring gaze while letting his tongue loll limply out of his mouth.

Nina smiled and gave her little pony an affectionate pat. “I know you want water right now, but your body’s too hot to handle it. We gotta wait for you to cool down first.” Nina reached into her Berry Pouch to procure some of the spicy Cheri Berries that Licky preferred. “Here, have some Berries in the meantime.”

Licky immediately perked up and laid into the bright red Berries that Nina offered to him, eliciting giggles from the girl at the ticklish sensation of her Ponyta’s lithe tongue. She had to remind herself not to touch her face after feeding Licky. Not that she made that mistake before. Nope, definitely not her. And she certainly did not cry like a baby at staining her eyes with spicy Cheri juices.

Nina kissed Licky on the forehead and gently caressed his throbbing neck as they took a leisurely stroll down the direction where they came from.

“Hey, remember how you tried to drink sea water the first time you were here?”

Licky huffed in embarrassment at his teasing human and gave her a sticky lick in retaliation, slobbering spicy Berry juices all over her. 

Nina laughed. Her Ponyta had never seen the ocean before, so when she first took Licky to the beach, he had thought that the body of water in front of him was just a massive lake and tried to drink out of it, only to scrunch up his face at the salty taste that entered his mouth.

It was an extremely funny and endearing sight. Not so much when the Ponyta tried to drink sea water to sate his thirst after an especially hard workout though.

***

“Neigh!”

As one could imagine, trying to get a pure Fire Type Pokemon to take a bath after an excursion at the beach was quite the ordeal. Luckily, with the assistance of a Draconic serpent and an overpowered Psychic, the task was somewhat manageable.

“Hey, hey… It’s okay, Licky. Nairy’s just going to douse you with a bit of water to wash the worst of the sand out, then I’ll wipe you down. I promise.”

The irate Ponyta’s tantrum was barely being contained by Espy. With the Psychic Type lightly holding him in place with a thin layer of Psychic Energy and soothing her junior with calming thoughts being beamed directly into his head.

“Here, have some Berries. It’s gonna be alright, okay? We won’t be able to go to the beach soon, once all the tourists start coming back. So this will just be for a little while longer.”

“Neigh…” Licky moaned, looking considerably calmer, eliciting hugs and kisses from Nina. The girl was still holding onto the juvenile horse Pokemon when she gave a subtle nod to Nairy to use a heavily weakened Water Gun.

Licky shivered at the stream of water and began struggling a little, only to be calmed down once again by Nina’s whispers and Espy’s gentle thoughts.

“See? Not so bad right? Now relax while I wipe you down.” Nina grabbed a washcloth and began gently wiping her Ponyta, taking extra care to get into the crevices of Licky’s hooves and joints. 

Nina had taken to sleeping with Licky on a beanbag on the floor during the cold winter nights. And waking up covered in sand was not a fun experience. So she always made sure to give her little pony a thorough cleaning.

“There, all done.”

“Neigh~” The joyous Ponyta quickly pranced out of the bathroom, happy to finally be done with the ordeal. 

Nina chuckled, before sighing at her messy bathroom covered in wet sand. “Welp, time for another clean up. Do you mind helping me out, Nairy?”

“Nair~”

“Thanks, you’re the best partner a girl could ever hope for.”