"C'mon girls, ah can see Las Pegasus city from here!" Apple Bloom ecstatically cheered as she pointed at the bright city over the treeline "Think o' the food we can eat! Mmmmmm...."

Evening had fallen over the land and already the nocturnal Pokemon had begun to creep their way out of their homes to search for food. The light in the sky danced glorious and warm colours across the clouds as the sun set. This was probably Scootaloo's favourite time of the day, simply because of its beauty. Torchic, on the other hand, was beginning to become anxious at the setting sun.

"Torchic..." it shivered a bit.

"Aww, Torchic, are you cold?" Scootaloo kindly smiled before she finally realized why her partner was shivering, a cocky smirk appearing on her face "Oh, you're scared, aren't you?"

"TOR!!" it shouted, pecking Scootaloo on the head.

"Ow! Haha! Don't worry, Torchic" she laughed "I was scared of the nighttime when I was younger as well. My sister was the one who helped me out with that one, and now I'm A-OK with the dark. Don't worry about it, okay?"

"Maybe Torchic just needs a friend to help it out?" Sweetie Belle suggested before pulling out the only Poke Ball on her waist and tossing it upwards "Chikorita, come on out!"

"Chiki!" a green, quadrupedal Pokemon with a ring of flower bud around its neck and a giant leaf on its head cheerfully spoke.

"Oh, totally forgot to add that to my Pokedex" Scootaloo face-palmed herself before taking out said device and activating it "Let's fix that, shall we?"

Chikorita, the Leaf Pokemon
In battle, Chikorita waves its leaf around to keep the foe at bay. However, a sweet fragrance also wafts from the leaf, becalming the battling Pokémon and creating a cozy, friendly atmosphere all around.

"Well, if there wasn't a better way to help Torchic out..." Scootaloo smiled at the 'friendly atmosphere' part "Alright you to; go ahead and mingle or something!"

"Tor..." Torchic rudely refused to jump off Scootaloo's head and speak with Chikorita.

"Oh, c'mon, Torchic" Scootaloo attempted to pull the chick off her hair, but to no avail "I'm trying... To... Be... NICE to you!"

"T-Tor... Chic..." Torchic held onto her hair by its surprisingly strong mouth. Eventually Scootaloo just gave up all together.

"Fine, Torchic. If that's what you want, then I guess that's the way it'll have to be" she sighed "But you're passing up a good chance to make a new friend and, y'know, not ruin friendships."

"Torchic..." it continued to be uptight and refused to meet with the grass-type Pokemon near it.

"Chiki..." Chikorita was saddened by Torchic's answer before slowly and sadly walking back to Sweetie Belle.

"Aww, it's okay, Chikorita" she patted her partner on the leaf, making it surprisingly purr "You did your best. Alright, return!" she called back the green Pokemon with her Poke Ball.

"That Torchic is gonna git us inta trouble one day..." Apple Bloom told Scootaloo before she heard something off in the distance "Wait... Do y'all hear that?"

(Music Stop)

"Sounds like... someone crying?" Sweetie Belle confusingly suggested "If it is, we better help him or her!"

"Well first, we gotta find them" Apple Bloom stepped up "Scootaloo, go search west. Sweet Belle, y'all go lookin' east. Ah'll check south, since we just came from the north."

"Got it!" the other two girls nodded before all three ran off to their respective searching posts.

"Hello? Anyone crying over here?" Sweetie Belle called out, trying to listen for and following the crying sound emanating around her "I don't really have anything to cheer you up, but I've got a warm hug to maybe give you a smile."

"And just who the heck are you?" someone asked behind Sweetie's back. She turned around to see a young woman with swirly dark blue and violet hair, a white sundress with a small blue ribbon on the front, and white and blue sneakers. She would have looked kind enough to the new Pokemon Trainer, if it wasn't for the stern look in her eyes.

"Oh, um... My name is-" she was about to reveal herself right until the woman interrupted her.

"I swear, if you're a part of those Team Chaos ruffians, I'll have you know I'm a member of the Frontier Brains at the Battle Frontier, and my Sliggoo can easily defeat you" she spoke in a cross and rather talkative manner "Furthermore, if you ARE a part of Team Chaos, then you better return my friend's Pokemon immediately before I do something drastic."

"Whoa, whoa, let's not get outta control here okay?" Sweetie Belle calmed the woman down "First of all, I have no idea who Team Chaos is, so we're good on that. Secondly, do I look like someone who would steal a Pokemon?"

"Well, no, but-" the woman spoke again before being interrupted by another voice, this one sounding like she just cried a river.

"Bonbon, it's... it's okay..." the feminine voice said from behind some bushes "Don't get... *hic* ...Don't get... too into something like this... especially... *hic* ...Team Chaos..."

"Oh, Lyra..." the woman, now revealed to be Bonbon, sighed as she went toward the voice. Without a thought, Sweetie followed and found another young woman with mint hair, a green midriff shirt over a white sweatshirt, blue jean shorts and green rainboots laying on her back on the ground. Her face looked like she had cried for a solid half hour.

"Are you okay, Miss... um... Lyra?" Sweetie Belle asked the woman on the ground.

"*sniff*... No..." she replied "My... *hic*... My..." she couldn't contain it anymore and began crying again.

"Oh, Lyra, don't cry..." Bonbon tried to comfort her friend before looking back at Sweetie Belle "Sorry for snapping at you back there. After Lyra's Blitzle was taken by those ruffians called Team Chaos, she's been like this. And just in case you were wondering, Team Chaos was, or I guess still is, an evil syndicate bent on ruling the world. They almost succeeded too, if it wasn't for the heroics of six young girls a few years ago. I was about their same age when they saved us from an iron fist. In fact, I-"

"Bonbon, d-don't... *sniff*... be an Exposition Elena..." Lyra sniffed, a small smile appearing on her face "Man you... *sniff*... never change, do you?"

"Well, I-" Bonbon was about to go into full detail why that wasn't true, but just sighed instead "...Good to see you smile again Lyra."

"Hey, my friends and I can help you get your Pokemon back!" Sweetie Belle suggested gleefully, squeaking a bit.

"R-Really? Y-You'd do that for me?" Lyra gasped in happiness from Sweetie's offer, proceeding to hug her "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me!"

"O-Okay..." Sweetie nervously chuckled as she was squeezed by the young woman "Hugging... Tight... Crushing... Lungs..."

"Oh, sorry..." Lyra sighed as she let go.

"But, wait, you have a... Sliggoo, was it?" Sweetie asked Bonbon curiously "Why couldn't you go and save Lyra's Blitzle?"

"Well, truth is..." she took a deep breath an told the truth "...Team Chaos took my Sliggoo as well. I'm sorry for lying to you, but since Sliggoo is a very powerful Pokemon, so to speak, I wanted to strike fear into others' hearts by telling them I still had my Pokemon so they wouldn't find Lyra and take something else from her, or worse. Furthermore, if I-"

"Okay, thanks for the answer..." Sweetie Belle began to get bored with Bonbon talking all the time "Man, Lyra's right; you ARE a Exposition Elena."

"I know..." Bonbon sighed.

(Music Stop)

"Sweetie Belle, we got here as soon as we could!" Apple Bloom rushed towards her friend's location after being called solely by Sweetie Belle's shouting voice "What's the problem?"

"This is the problem" she motioned her hand to the still weeping Lyra, still on the ground, and still missing her Pokemon "Bonbon here says she's been like this for half-an-hour. She says a Pokemon of both hers and Lyra's was taken by some guys called Team Chaos. You guys know anything about them?"

"T-Team Chaos?!" Scootaloo gasped, remembering earlier today "Y-Yeah, I know who they are! Um... Rainbow Dash tells me about them all the time!"

"Wait, Rainbow Dash?" Bonbon questioned "Are you perhaps related to Rainbow Dash, one of the six heroes that saved our world from the conquering of Team Chaos? If so, I feel WAY happier about entrusting this job to you three girls, as surely blood of Rainbow Dash's would resonate in siblings/daughters/cousins/aunts/nieces, right?"

"Um... Yes" Scootaloo said very blatantly before turning to Lyra "Does she always-"

"Yeah..." Lyra nodded, still with a few tears in her eyes "But I suppose... *sniff*...that's why I like her so much... Please get our Pokemon back for us! I miss Blitzle already... *sniff*" she proceeded to cry again.

"Quite sorry about her" Bonbon apologized "She can get very emotional when something bad happens. Please find our Pokemon, and we'll be indebted to you for as long as you need."

"Tor, Tor, Tor..." Torchic laughed on Scootaloo's head at Lyra's dispense.

"Torchic, don't be mean!" Scootaloo scolded her partner.

"Will do, Miss Bonbon" Apple Bloom nodded at Bonbon's request "So, which way did they take take off?"

"Last I remember, they headed off deeper into the forest" Bonbon recalled, pointing over where she remembered the syndicate running off to "I think there might be some sort of secret base in there that we're unaware of. It's most likely hidden by trees and bushes, as surely Team Chaos wouldn't like to be seen."

"How do ya know Team Chaos has a secret base in the forest?" Apple Bloom questioned.

"AB, have you seen Star Wars: Return of the Jedi?" Scootaloo wrapped an arm around the back of her friend's neck.

"Um... No?"

"That would explain it then" Scootaloo nodded before walking in the direction Bonbon pointed towards "Alright guys, let's get a move-on! We have places to be and Pokemon to save!"

"She sounds nervous about something..." Sweetie Belle whispered to Apple Bloom "There's something she's not telling us. You don't think that..."

"No, she wouldn't be a part o' those guys" Apple Bloom whispered back "But ah do think she knows somethin' else about them... We better keep an eye on her just ta be sure..."

"Agreed" Sweetie nodded before she and her country friend rushed to meet up with their purple-haired friend.

The trio continued to trek through the thickening trees of Whitetail Woods. Soon enough, the air around them began to become colder, signalling they were getting closer to Vanhoover, according to Apple Bloom's map. They searched and searched, but they never found anything resembling the entrance to a secret base. Not one out-of-place rock, and not one unusually large tree.

"This is hopeless..." Sweetie Belle sighed "We'll never find that secret base entrance at this rate..."

"Don't give up hope, girls!" Apple Bloom triumphantly urged her friends to keep going "Two Pokemon lives are at possible stake, here! We have ta find them, no matter what!"

"Apple Bloom's right" Scootaloo nodded with a smile "We made a promise and I intend to keep it. But where would we find a secret base? We've looked everywhere, and found nothing..."

"Don't worry, girls" Apple Bloom smiled "Sometimes ya gotta let these things find y'all. Ah dunno what that means, but Pinkie told it ta me once, and right now, we could use some serious Pinkie logic."

The moment Apple Bloom finished her sentence, the ground beneath the trio shook a bit. Then, the ground around Sweetie Belle's feet began rising slightly, slowly making way for a drill to take the earth's place.

"Girls, hide!" Scootaloo ran away from the drill, her friends in hot pursuit. They hid behind a plethora of trees and watched the iron drill make its way to the surface of the planet. The drill's body revealed itself to be iron in material and cylindrical in shape with a painted but slightly faded purple shield with a yellow capitol "C" on it, more than likely standing for Chaos. A single man stepped out of the elevator-like drill machine, looking very similar to the man Scootaloo saw in the warehouse, purple jacket and all. In fact, the more Scootaloo looked at him, it WAS the same man!

"Darn it!" the man groaned as the drill slowly descended into the earth, covering the hold it just made "I can't believe I was put on look-out duty again. And I still can't believe that stupid, air-headed idiot is my boss. If she wasn't around, we would have gotten more than just two lousy Pokemon today."

"Is that..." Sweetie Belle whispered "...someone from Team Chaos?"

"He's gotta be..." Apple Bloom answered "Okay, he's clearly out-numbered, but if we approach him slowly, we should be able ta grab whatever key he's holdin' use it ta bring up the elevator, and infiltrate their base. Ya with me, Scoots?" she looked over at where her purple haired friend was, only to see Torchic lazily munching on a leaf.

"Torchic, Tor" it said calmly, opening its eye in Scootaloo's direction. The two girls looked over to see that Scootaloo was out in the open, ready to talk down to the man.

"Hey you!" she got his attention.

"No way... Not you again!" he gasped at Scootaloo's appearance, confusing Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle "You here to burn down another one of our warehouses, demon child?"

"No, but I AM here to retrieve the Pokemon you stole" Scootaloo spoke in a determined voice "So, um... Give them back, or else!"

"Hahaha! Kid you may have scared me before, but that's in the past" the man laughed "This time, I was given a special Pokemon that'll cream you for sure. You're not getting away from me twice! For Chaos!"

(Music Stop)

The man pulled out a single Poke Ball from his waist and stared at Scootaloo devilishly. Scootaloo in turn grabbed her own Poke Ball, containing Spinarak. Both persons backed up a bit before finally throwing their Poke Balls at the same time.

"Go, Espurr!" the man shouted as he threw his ball, a bipedal grey cat Pokemon with large ears, white hands and feet, and horrifying lavender eyes that seemingly stared into space. Spinarak soon popped out of its own ball as well to face the cat Pokemon.

"Espurr?" Apple Bloom wondered, pulling out her Pokedex "That's... pretty scary, actually..."

Espurr, the Restraint Pokemon
The organ that emits its intense psychic power is sheltered by its ears to keep power from leaking out. It has enough psychic energy to blast everything within 300 feet of itself, but it has no control over this power.

"Spinarak, use String Shot into the trees and do the same thing as when we fought Diamond Tiara!" Scootaloo shouted at the spider, it looking slightly confused at first but complying eventually. It once again spat some web into the trees and waited for the most perfect time to strike.

"Ha, that's a good one kid" the man laughed again "I dunno what I was so worried about when I saw you burn the warehouse down; you're still a newbie! Espurr, use Confusion on the trees!"

"Espurrrrr..." the Espurr purred as it stared intently at the treetops. Spinarak was unfortunate enough to stare right back and wobble right off the branch it was standing on, right onto the ground. Scootaloo hesitantly reacted to the situation.

"Espurr, Scratch that bug!" the man chuckled.

"Spinarak, quick! Use String Shot on Espurr!" Scootaloo shouted at Spinarak, to which it reacted quickly to its master's orders and got up, shooting its sticky web right at the cat Pokemon, sticking it firmly into the ground "Great! Now use Poison Sting on it!" she ordered. Without question, Spinarak crawled up to Espurr and sunk its maws right into the latter's skin, poisoning it. To Scootaloo and even Spinarak's surprise, it didn't seem fazed by the situation at all.

"Heh... That all you got?" the man smiled again "Espurr, ignore your poisoned state and use Confusion once more!"

Espurr stared right at Spinarak again with its deep, terrifying eyes and caused it to wobble around a bit like being in a drunken stupor. The cat Pokemon then blinked and sent a powerful wave of psychic energy at the spider Pokemon, causing it to collapse, its eyes now replaces with swirls.

"Spinarak, return!" Scootaloo pulled out her Poke Ball and called back Spinarak "Torchic, you're up!"

"Torchic, Tor..." Torchic lazily spoke, calmly eating a leaf it found on the ground.

"Torchic, c'mon out, I don't have all day!" Scootaloo urged "Please? For me? For, um... The FEMALE Blitzle?"

Torchic perked up at its partner's white lie. Without question, it spat the leaf out and went to fight for Scootaloo, staring right back at the Pokemon with stares that could kill... Literally!

"Alright, now it's game time!" Scootaloo smiled "Espurr's weak and still trapped. Use Ember on the web!"

"Ember?" the man questioned "Crud, that's right! Espurr, break free from that web as best as you can!"

Espurr struggled to break out of the sticky web Spinarak laid out for it, but to no avail. The man panicked as tiny flames shot out of Torchic's mouth and quickly approached the cat Pokemon's trap. Finally, Espurr was able to break out, but was still covered in web. The flames hit the web and caught on fire almost immediately, dealing major damage to the cat and even burning it.

"Crud, no!" the man shouted, but his pleas were not heard.

"Torchic, use scratch while you still can!" Scootaloo ordered. Torchic reluctantly nodded and ran forward toward Espurr, jumped on its head and scratched the ever-living crud out of it. The chick then pushed the cat face-first into the ground, hopping off of it and sticking its beak up like it owned the place, so to speak. Espurr rolled on its back to reveal it too had swirly eyes.

(Music Stop)

"NOOOOOOO!!!" the man cried out "How could I have lost to a pathetic little runt like you?!" it then looked right at Espurr and scoffed "They told me you were a good Pokemon and you lost to a spider and a bird! What a waste of my time..." he pulled out Espurr's Poke Ball and smashed it right in front of Espurr.

"Hey, what the heck, you big brute!" Sweetie Belle called out from behind the trees "Just because you lost a Pokemon battle, you give up on your Pokemon?!"

"Well, of course" the man smiled "Pokemon are just tools for battle anyway. That's what they always have been and always will be till the end of time."

"Why you..." Sweetie Belle was about to go nuts on that guy before Apple Bloom stopped her.

"Sweetie, it ain't worth it" she assured, calming the dress-clad young girl down. But this didn't stop her from approaching the downed Espurr with a warm smile "Hey there, little one... Would you like to come with me instead of that bad man?"

"Espurrrrrrr..." Espurr weakly nodded right before Sweetie Belle picked it up and carried it back to where Apple Bloom lay waiting "You two go on ahead. I need to get back to Bonbon and Lyra to see if they have any medicine for this little guy."

"Good idea, Sweetie" Scootaloo nodded "Take care of it, and good luck!"

Sweetie Belle nodded and quickly rushed back to where the two young women lay in wait. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, who had joined her friend's side, looked at the Team Chaos Grunt with fire in their eyes.

"No Pokemon left" Apple Bloom said with venom in her voice "Give us the access key ta yer secret base."

"Excuse me?!" the grunt gasped "First off, it's a research facility. Secondly, there is no way in heck that I'd give you this key. You can go ahead and beat me up with your Pokemon, but I will protect this with my life!"

"Fine then" Apple Bloom sighed "Ah didn't want ta do this, but ya left me with no choice... Squirtle, yer up!" she tossed her only Poke Ball up in the air, releasing a bipedal, bald and blue turtle Pokemon with a yellow belly shell and a reddish-brown back shell, as well as a long, curly blue tail.

"We don't want to do something drastic here, mister" Scootaloo made the man fall down on his backside before talking down to the him "Give us the key, or else!"

"...okay, fine" the man gave in and tossed the key, or rather button pad, at Apple Bloom "But only because I'm not ready to fight you. Mark my words; I WILL fight you again. And when I do, I'll beat you..."

"Good job protectin' this with yer life there, bud" Apple Bloom joked, ignoring the man's threat and looking down at the button pad key "Now, how do ya activate this thing? Maybe... This button?" she pressed the button and felt shaking under her feet. Soon enough, the elevator with the drill on top began rising from the exact same spot it did before. Finally, it stopped, and a door slid open, allowing Scootaloo and Apple Bloom to enter.

"Great job, AB" Scootaloo smiled before looking at Torchic "You did a good job, Torchic! Now, let's get going so we can save that Blitzle and snag you a girlfriend."

"Torchic!" the chick ecstatically cheered before hopping onto Scootaloo's head and riding her once again, her and Apple Bloom entering the elevator. Squirtle waddled its way into the elevator as well before all four stared at the man in shame. The man did nothing but stare right back as the elevator doors closed, and the cylindrical object slowly began sinking back down into the earth.

"...my boss is gonna be so angry with me..." the man sighed as he watched the last of the elevator go into the ground, once again covering up the hole it left.

Author's Notes:

Part 1 complete! This was a fun one to do, actually! Not sure what else to say in this AN... So, how was your day today? Catch any Pokemon? Do anything over the summer? No? We good? Okay...

Be sure to Like, Comment, Favourite and Follow, and until then, I'll see you guys later!