"You can't possibly think this is a good idea, Jessie," James said, sticking one of his bouquets into her face for emphasis. The other was swept around to encompass the rooftop garden. "Bad enough that we withheld information from that highly trained warrior of a Pokemon until she escorted us across the desert, but now you want us to fall back into our old ways? How is this in any way acting worthy of a second chance?"

"Don't be ridiculous, James," the Pyroar said, flicking her mane from over one shoulder to the other, trying to find a comfortable position for it. "The psychic clearly has far too many Berries up here to be able to keep proper track of. Once the plants bear fruit, you can replant the bare necessities...but we'll be taking the excess and selling them to both the natives and the Pokemon."

"Think of how many Pokemon there have to be in the city alone, wanting a taste of home! And just imagine what would happen if any of these Berry's effects could effect a pony! These Berries could be miracle cures for all sorts of ailments for them!" Meowth painted a compelling picture, James admitted, but he still shook his head.

"This Vincent, he took us in and offered us shelter, not only from our past, but also from the wrath of that Leavanny. This is how you choose to repay him?" James sighed and shook his head. "Count me out of it, then."

"Ah, but you're forgetting something," Jessie said with a smirk. "Even if only me and Meowth were to take some, what are the odds that you won't seem guilty by association? You heard and felt what he did in that room to get that Leavanny to back off. Do you really want to be the only scapegoat around?"

"I'm fairly certain telling the truth and continuing to stay on to help grow whatever you leave behind would be more than enough for him to stay his hand," James said, though there was a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.

"Think about it," Meowth said, smirking a bit at having sown the seeds of doubt.

"Yes, you have until the bushes bear fruit," Jessie continued, idly flicking her tail. "After which, all bets are off."

With that, Jessie and Meowth made for the stairs, and James sighed before turning his attention back to the Berries. "Which gives me, what, two days?"

In the dead of night, when everyone but Bit was asleep, a certain God finally got around to answering a certain prayer.

In his defense, he'd been busy as of late, dealing with both reasonable, and completely bullheaded, heads of state.

His form flitted across the globe, searching the minds of those he ran across, seeking one in particular and coming up empty.

Somewhere over the sea, he paused for a moment and reconsidered his approach. Doing it this way would mean it would be years before he found the one he'd been asked to find.

A solution presented itself. From out of nowhere came the Plates, spinning around his form. He fed a bit of his power into them and absorbed the energy they gave off in response to being activated by their master, assuming as much of his true power as he possibly could in this moment, without reabsorbing his children, of course.

His form blazed golden, and his search resumed, ending this time in two and three-quarters seconds. Once the mind had been found, he lowered himself to the ground she was resting on and coated both of themselves in his power before warping space and time around the pair of them.

Softly, the Alpha Pokemon laid an elderly, sleeping, female Bellossom at Vincent's front door, nodding once and casting a gaze at the third floor. "I agree, Lucy. She does deserve this," he said in a hushed tone, before winking out of existence and returning to his temple.

Sam came down after his early-morning breakfast and coffee and absently nodded at the figure behind the desk. "Mornin'," he said.

"To you as well," a feminine voice replied, causing Sam to pause and look over who he had just greeted again. When he did, he was certain his eyes were comically bulging as he drank in her form.

It was a Leavanny with significantly larger arm-blades than normal, ones that reminded him of his previous state as a Scyther. She appeared to be reading a newspaper at the moment, delicately holding it in said arm-blades. Sam slowly walked up to the desk and smiled at her before trying one of the moves the old man had passed on to him.

"Goodness, but if Arceus himself didn't have a hand in your creation, then I have no idea how you became so beautiful."

"You should stop while you only have one scratch on your armor to worry about," she replied.

Sam blinked before looking at his chest armor, noticing a long, fresh mark in it. "Huh," he replied. Then he realized that it was only the two of them there, and he winced. "Yikes! How...I didn't even see you move!"

"Comes with being a member of Bishop and Char's daughter," she replied, turning the page.

Sam winced again at the conjured memories of the training he and Char had gone through. Or more accurately, the training the older Scizor had all but forced him through. "Yeah, I can see that," Sam said before shaking his head. "Fine...but this isn't over."

"I look forward to your next attempt. Perhaps I shan't even reprimand you for it," she said, a bit of a smile on her face.

Sam sighed, a hint of a smirk playing across his face before he opened the front door and all but tripped over the Pokemon on the other side. Catching himself before he hit the ground, the Scizor looked at the Pokemon before turning back to the Leavanny behind the desk.

"Go get Vincent or Lucy, I think they're going to want to handle a new tenant showing up like this."

She nodded and went upstairs to retrieve one of his siblings, leaving Sam alone with the Bellossom. He gently gathered up the Bellossom and placed it on one of the couches in the lobby, taking care to not jostle her too badly. Just as he turned to leave, he saw the Leavanny returning with a slightly-grumpy Vincent in tow, sipping from a mug of coffee.

So this is why you interrupt my breakfast? Before either of them could justify their actions, Vincent continued with, I agree, I should look into this.

The Kadabra set his mug to one side and shook the Bellossom awake. She blinked a few times before sitting up and looking around. "This...this isn't where I went to sleep. What happened?"

"Calm yourself," Vincent said, using his actual voice for a change, "you are safe here. My name is Vincent, what is yours?"

The Bellossom froze before turning to look at the psychic, her eyes wide and slightly teary. "Vincent? Vincent Nurem?"

Vincent seemed to stiffen before nodding. "How do you know that name, ma'am?"

Sam had been mentally preparing himself for one of a number of reactions. Screaming, cursing, crying, all of which would require him to separate the two.

What he hadn't been expecting was for her to latch on and hug his little brother, all while saying, "My Vincent! My little Vincent!"

"Ma'am! Please, calm down! I don't recall any living Bellossom from my time on Earth, so how do you know me?"

She drew back a bit and kissed him on both cheeks before replying. "Of course you wouldn't recognize me, either here or on Earth, I fear, but maybe you'll recognize my name? I'm Jeanne, dear. I'm your-"

"Mother," Vincent finished, his eyes wide in shock and his body limp. "How did you get here?"

She shrugged and resumed holding Vincent close. "All I know is, I have my baby boy again, and that's all that matters right now."

Lucy had silently come down after Vincent and seen the whole reunion from the stairwell. The Lucario smiled a soft smile before whispering her thanks to Arceus for hearing her prayer.

Bit hovered outside, a piece of parchment in his grasp, preparing to do something probably ill-advised. But if it worked, it would be, as the more organic would say, so cool.

"Activate lasers. Prepare to fire on minimum power in this pattern."

The house responded as the wall around the door began to draw on the stored power and the defense system came to life. The green lasers pointed at the top of the parchment Bit was holding and waited. He took another moment to calculate the correct power levels for this operation of his, and adjusted them downwards another notch.

"Fire."

The streams of green lanced from the house to the parchment and began to slightly burn words into it for approximately ten seconds. After which, the systems shut off, their task done. Bit turned the parchment around in his grasp and read the words burned into it.

Greetings and salutations, your majesty.

It has come to the attention of this unit that you are one of the most, if not the most, prestigious magical researcher in this day and age. However, I am uncertain as to the protocols regarding obtaining an audience with you, mostly due to your quite recent ascension. Therefor, a middle ground between begging in person and finding one of your aides to schedule an appointment was struck: This letter.

This unit would ask you when you next have an opening in your no-doubt hectic schedule, as I desire to learn from you about the natural phenomena known as 'magic', not only in how the native pony populace utilizes it, but I also seek instruction in using it myself. I proffer in exchange for your teachings knowledge of some of Earth's more useful devices, both in how to build and how to operate them. Is the proposed exchange agreeable to you?

Sincerely,

Bit, the Porygon-Z

Reading over the letter twice, Bit nodded to himself and proceeded to head to his nearest post office. The sooner this letter was sent, the sooner it would arrive, and the sooner he would get a response regarding these matters. If there was indeed magic everywhere in this world, it would be a shame to not use it.

Author's Notes:

Jessie and Meowth are very much the bad influence on James, pressuring him into situations he really doesn't want to be in.
And say hello to Jeanne! I think that'll be the last new face for a while.
Sam's past with the dirty old man starts to come into play as he finally meets someone in his Egg Group...
And Bit shows off Equestria's first laser printer!