Chapter Four: Oreburgh City Gym

"Wake up Rainbow Dash, we need to head over to Jubilife City now." Twilight said.

I opened my eyes and the light of dawn peeked through the window. I looked over and Twilight was all ready for the journey to Oreburgh City. "Okay okay, I'm up now." I said as I stood to find my brush.

"Well hurry up won't you. I have never met a pony so lazy in my entire life."

"Oh shush it." I ran around the room gathering my stuff. It wasn't long before I was fully dressed. "Okay let's get going shall we?"

Twilight led me out of the hotel and we thanked the girl at the front desk. We walked out the door and headed to the north of town, next to the Poké Center. Two people were waiting for us near the edge of town, it was Professor Rowan and Dawn.

"Good morning Professor." I said with a yawn.

"And a good morning to you too Rainbow Dash, I have something for you two. Before you headed out I wanted to make sure you had mine and Dawn's numbers. Call us if you ever need any help getting around the Sinnoh region. My colleague Professor Oak is knowledgeable in most everything but he doesn't know this region as well as I do."

He took our Pokédex's and punched in a few numbers before handing them back to us. I jammed mine back into my saddle bag and shook his hand. Twilight followed and then said, "Professor, thank you for everything. I'm so glad there are nice people in this world that will agree to help us. I am sure if there is anything we need we will get ahold of either of you."

With that we were on our way, off into the world of Pokémon. It was still odd to think that these small powerful creatures could be controlled so easily and it was still very different from Equestria but I was getting used to it.

"So what to do? Just head straight for the city?" I asked.

"Sounds about right, nothing more to do than get there in one piece."

We saw a sign near us that read Route 202 with two signs under it, one pointed north saying Jubilife City, the other pointed south saying Sandgem Town. The wind was blowing again and I heard lots of rustling in the trees surrounding us. It was eerie to think that a Pokémon could pop out at us at any moment but it was also kind of thrilling. Poké battles were fun, I liked them.

"So when are you going to catch another Pokémon Twilight?"

"I'm waiting for the perfect one. You found a bird type Pokémon on your first try, that fits you perfectly seeing how you're a pegasus and all. I need to find a type of Pokémon that fits me like Pidgey fits you."

We walked along, the grass thickening a little. I heard the soft crunching underneath my feet as we walked along and just thought about how much it reminded me of Ponyville. My mind started to drift to the other ponies, I wondered what they were up too right now. Pinkie Pie was probably throwing a party for some random reason, maybe even for no reason at all, just to have a party. Applejack was more than likely bucking some apples on the farm. Rarity was undoubtedly making clothes at her shop for the many ponies in Ponyville that relied on her for clothing. Lastly, Fluttershy was probably off rescuing some sort of animal in danger or something to do with animals, which was her specialty.

"Say Twilight, how ticked do you think Fluttershy would be if she saw how Pokémon were put into little tiny balls and used to fight one another?"

"Oh boy, don't get me started on that subject. Fluttershy would never let us live that one down. Oh no, she'd be all like, why were you imprisoning little sweet animals and using them to fight your way home! Have you no shame, no care for what they think?"

We laughed as we passed a fenced off part of the trail leading to Jubilife City. A sign posted in front of it said "Closed until further notice. Thanks for your patience!"

We continued our walk until a massive city came into view. It had large buildings with many windows and many winding streets leading towards the center which was a market. We could see the Poké Center and a large building with a dish looking thing on top of it near the market.

"Hey Twilight, what is that weird looking dish thing?"

"Like heck if I know, I've never seen one before. Let's go check it out shall we?" and with that we raced down the path into Jubilife City.

It was a bustling city with lots of people walking around. We got weird stares as we passed but we ignored most of them. There was however one person that gave us an odd look but it seemed to me that he should be the one receiving the odd looks. He was dressed in the oddest outfit I had ever seen, a white jumpsuit with a large yellow G on the chest and black pants with large shoes that went up to his knee. He was talking to another person that was dressed the same as him.

"Look at them Twilight." I pointed to the two men, "Those are indeed some odd outfits aren't they?"

"Yeah they are, and look at the looks they are giving us. It's like they think we are the weird ones just because we are ponies. Anyways let's get going to that building with the weird thing on the roof."

We made our way over to it and there was a guy guarding the door. He had a black suit on which made him look like he was going to a High School Prom or something. We walked up to him and he put out his arms, stopping us.

"Halt you two. This building is closed off until further notice." He said with a serious look on his face.

"We just wanted to know what the thing on the roof was." I said.

"Oh that? It's a satellite dish. It receives the signals for the Jubilife TV station to function properly. It also sends out the signals that go to every TV in the Sinnoh region, but right now the TV station is down because of the spatial disturbances being reported."

"What is a TV?" Twilight asked.

"What! You don't know what a TV is?" the guy had a shocked look on his face. "It's only the best invention around. It lets you watch recorded shows and play fancy video games. It's really handy to have altogether because it takes away the long hours of boredom at home, that is if you live in a town where there is nothing but a TV to keep you entertained. Here in Jubilife City we have a lot of tourists come through that are Pokémon trainers and then most of our business is tourism and commerce. So sitting in front of a TV is over rated here in Jubilife City."

I didn't have a clue what he was talking about but it sounded really cool. I looked at Twilight and she seemed just as stumped as I was. I figured though that we needed to be going on so I said "Thank you for that information, we have to be going now."

We left him there by the door because we saw a sign that read west to Oreburgh City so we found ourselves heading out the west exit of the city. Looking back on it, it was rather large of a city. It was pretty in the mid-day sun with the large buildings that looked like they were touching the sky. "Nice place, don't you agree?" Twilight asked me.

"Yeah, I still wonder about those creeps in the weird outfits though."

"Oh don't worry, it is only natural that we get weird looks, I mean we are ponies that talk. Probably not what they are used to right?"

We laughed again as we walked down the road. It was a few minutes before anything really happened, Twilight stopped short and I ran into her. "Ouch! What was that for Twilight?" I asked as I rubbed my nose.

"I heard something to the left of us. Let's check it out." And she led us into a large patch of grass that went over our heads.

"I don't like this Twilight, anything can jump out and attack us while we can't see them."

"Oh don't get your panties in a bunch Rainbow, I swear I heard something over here though."

We kept walking through the dense tall grass until we came upon a small clear patch. We stopped because there was a Pokémon, or we could only guess that it was a Pokémon, sitting in the middle of this clear patch. Its head and feet were a deep golden yellow and its body was a kind of tan brown color. Twilight pulled out her Pokédex and scanned for the Pokémon.

The screen stopped on it and the voice said aloud "Abra, Psi Pokémon. Using its psychic power is such a strain on its brain that it needs to sleep for eighteen hours a day."

Twilight sat there looking at its Pokédex entry for a little while. She finally looked at me a whispered "This is it, this is the Pokémon I have been waiting for. It says here that it is psychic type and that it is most likely to run away rather than fight, using its teleportation technique. I only have one shot at this but I want this Pokémon."

Twilight used her magic to pull out her Pokéball and she threw it. Charmander popped out quietly and the Abra didn't catch what was going on. It was just sat there, like it was sleeping. Then it dawned on me, "Wait Twilight!" I whispered urgently, "What if this Pokémon is asleep, that would make it way easier to catch wouldn't it?"

She looked at me and had a thinking look on her face for a moment. "But if it's not sleeping then my only chance at catching it is gone."

"Do as you please, just trying to give some pointers."

Twilight thought for another moment. It really did seem like the Abra was asleep because it still hadn't moved at all since we got to this clearing. She decided to attack it and try to catch it off guard because she moved Charmander in for the attack.

"Charmander tackle him!" she yelled.

That woke up the Abra and he turned around just as Charmander smashed into him. The Abra went rolling and before it could get back up Charmander smacked him with another tackle. The Abra was dazed so Twilight took a Pokéball and threw it at the Abra. It enveloped him in the red light and then hit the ground.

The ball started to shake multiple times. After a minute or so though it stopped shaking and the Abra was caught. "Yes!" Twilight yelled, hopping up and down. "I did it, I did it!"

"Okay Twilight, I'm happy for you but you should calm down before you attract some unwanted guests to this celebration party. Let's get going, the sign that we passed said Oreburgh City was only a mile away. That's nothing if we keep running."

So Twilight returned Charmander to his Pokéball and we kept going, running back through the grass and onto the path again. We passed the sign that said Oreburgh City one mile and pointed in the direction we were heading.

A couple minutes later however we were just trotting along slowly when rustling sounds came from beside us. "Another Pokémon?" I said as I reached for a Pokéball.

"Sounds like two, keep your guard up." Twilight murmured as she used her magic to raise a Pokéball. The rustling got louder and then two men jumped out of nowhere. They were dressed in that ridiculous outfit with the G on the chest. They turned towards us and I recognized them as the two we saw back in Jubilife City.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here. Two novice Pokémon trainers heading towards their first gym battle no doubt." The one on the right laughed.

The left one followed suit and said "Well how about we give them some practice shall we?" he pulled out a Pokéball and raised his arm.

"In the name of our leader, we shall." The other said, pulling out a Pokéball as well.

"Are they gonna fight us together Twilight?" I asked, preparing my Pokéball.

"Sure looks like it, be ready. Trainers should be stronger than wild Pokémon." Twilight tossed her Pokéball and out popped Charmander again. He looked a little winded from battling the Abra but otherwise he was just fine. I tossed mine and out popped Pidgey, stout and ready for action.

"Ha, opposites. Who would have guessed?" the one on the right said. He threw his Pokéball and a little cat looking Pokémon came out. It was great with a curled up tail that looked like a spring of some sort. I pulled out my Pokédex and it read off, "Glameow, Catty Pokémon. It hides its spiteful tendency of hooking its claws into the nose of its trainer if it isn't fed."

The other trainer threw out his Pokémon and it was a purple skunk looking Pokémon. It had a large white strip down its back and tail and orange rings around its beady black eyes. The Pokédex yelled out "Stunky, Skunk Pokémon. It sprays a foul fluid from its rear. Its stench spreads over a mile radius, driving Pokémon away."

I looked to Twilight and she nodded at me. It seemed she believed we had a decent chance against them. They moved first, each of them ordering their Pokémon to tackle ours. I took the defensive and Twilight took the offensive. I yelled "Pidgey, dodge it and fall back!" and she obeyed my commands.

Twilight yelled "Charmander fake to the side and catch the Stunky with an ember attack!" which he did expertly. Charmander and Pidgey both dodged the attacks heading towards them. Pidgey fell back behind Charmander just as he spit fire at the Stunky. It caught the Stunky off guard and he went rolling away. Our teamwork seemed to be besting them better than them working as individuals.

I yelled "Alright Pidgey, push off of Charmander's back to get some air and hit the Glameow with a wing attack!" Pidgey raced over and hopped onto Charmander's back, launched off a good four feet into the air and then glided down into the Glameow, attacking with the side of his wing. The Glameow was hit so hard in the head it fainted as it was thrown across the path and into the grass beyond.

"Curses!" the man yelled as he returned his injured Pokémon to its Pokéball. The fight was still on though as the Stunky returned to the battle. Charmander and Pidgey were both rearing for a fight though and when it got there Twilight and I both yelled out "Tackle that Stunky!"

In unison they both lurched forward, tackling the Stunky so hard it hit its trainer in the face and landed on the ground, emitting a foul smell the entire time. The Stunky fainted and we won the battle but it was starting to smell really bad. Charmander and Pidgey both came to us practically begging to go back into their Pokéballs so we returned them to their respective Pokéballs.

I covered my nose and said, with a squeaky voice, "Who are you two?"

"We are members of Team Galactic and this isn't the last you will see of us ponies!" the yelled in unison before throwing down a smoke bomb and disappearing.

We made our way the last mile to Oreburgh City and the first building we passed as we walked in was the Poké Center. We went inside and everyone yelled out in disgust. "Oh dear, you two smell like you got hit by a Stunky spray." The nurse said to us.

"That's exactly what happened to us. Do you have anything that will help the smell? Also we need to rest our Pokémon."

"Yes of course, right this way." She took our Pokéballs and led us to the back. We bathed in tomato sauce for a good half hour before being rinsed off in a large shower. It was great to relax after a long trip over to Oreburgh City and I finally got to talk to Twilight without worrying about skunk smell.

"So what do you think of those, what did they call themselves, Team Galactic members?"

"What a joke. They seemed like they just wanted to bully us because we are new to the whole battling thing. We showed them the power of friendship though. If you work together there is nothing you can't do."

I agreed with Twilight but it still seemed odd how they singled us out when there was a whole massive town of people they could pick on. Still I had to relax a bit so I let the water flow over me for a little bit longer.

We finally got out and dried off and collected our things from the counter. "Thank you so very much!" we both said in unison and bowed to the nurse.

"Oh it was nothing, just doing my job! You two have a nice day, oh and if you're here to challenge Roark to a battle, the gym is on the other side of the city next to the entrance to the mines." She bowed us from the shop.

"Well that was lovely, got to relax before we took on the Oreburgh City gym. Well if it's next to the mines, I think that's it." I said, pointing off into the distance where you could see a big building next to a mine entrance.

We walked over to the gym and there was a young boy outside the entrance. He was about our height and had dark brown hair and blue eyes. He was staring up towards the sign that said gym on it. He saw us and said "Here to challenge Roark?"

We nodded our heads. He smiled and said "I don't suppose either of you have a grass type Pokémon do you?"

I once again nodded then said "I have a Treecko, why?"

"Can I see your Treecko really quick?"

I couldn't see why not so I handed him the Pokéball containing Treecko and he released him. Then he started to dink around with a little circular disk looking object and then returned Treecko to his Pokéball. "There you go, I just taught your Treecko a powerful grass type move, it will help you tremendously with my older brother because he uses only Rock type Pokémon so your Grass type should have no issue with this gym. The move is called Razor Leaf."

"Wow, thank you!" with that we entered the gym. It was large with boulders all over the place. In the middle was a battle area with white painted lines. We walked up to it and a man stood at the other side and noticed us as we passed into the white lines. "Challengers?" he said, a mildly interested look on his face. He wore a miner's cap with miner's clothes on.

Twilight stepped forward, "We are both here to challenge you and we have to beat this gym. I'll be your first opponent."

"So be it, this will be a singles match, limit of two Pokémon. That's how I duel newcomers."

"I'm fine with that." Twilight motioned me to leave the white area so I did. "Go Twilight, show him what you're made of." I cheered her on.

Twilight threw out her Pokéball and Charmander popped out. He seemed refreshed from his stay at the Poké Center as well so I was relieved. Twilight might actually have a chance to beat him.

He threw a Pokéball out and out popped a large snake like creature that was made out of boulders. I pulled out my Pokédex and read its entry. "Onix, Rock Snake Pokémon. Opening its large mouth, it ingests massive amounts of soil and creates long tunnels."

Oh no, I thought to myself, Twilight won't be able to beat this Pokémon. It's going to be too strong for her Charmander. Let's hope that Abra is worth something then.

The battle started. Twilight yelled out "Charmander use tackle, try to confuse it!" and Charmander raced around, hitting it every so often. It did nothing to the large snake like Onix except aggravate it.

"Onix, don't play around. Squish that Charmander like a bug!" Roark yelled out. And just as quickly as it started, the battle ended. Onix anticipated one of Charmander's leaps and moved faster than I could blink. He dodged the attack and swung his tail down hard onto Charmander's head. That was lights out for the small reptile Pokémon.

"No! Charmander!" Twilight yelled in angst. I was surprised that she didn't see that coming because Charmander isn't that fast. She returned him to his Pokéball and then pulled out her last one. She threw it and the Abra landed in front of the Onix.

"Ha! An Abra, that's what you left for last?" Roark said. I didn't see why he was laughing, he wasn't a sure win yet. That is until I saw the Abra in action.

The battle commenced right after Abra came onto the field. Twilight had expected Onix to go straight for the ending shot and that's what he did. He swung his tail hard at the ground, right where Abra was. Of course what she didn't expect was this, she yelled "Abra dodge it and hit the Onix with all you've got!" and in the split second before the Onix's attack hit, Abra looked at her with a look that plainly stated, "What are you talking about?"

Then the tail collided with Abra knocking him out instantly. Twilight was dumbfounded and so was I. No one had expected the Abra to just sit there and take a four hundred pound tail to the head.

I stepped up as Twilight returned Abra to his Pokéball. "It's my turn to face you Roark."

"Same rules, limit two Pokémon, single battle."

"Fine by me." I smirked and tossed out Treecko. It was time to test out his new move.

When Treecko landed in front of Onix, Roark actually gasped in surprise. "Well I think we may have a challenger win. First time since my little brother beat me with his Bulbasaur. Interesting to say the least." And he laughed when he finished his sentence.

I smirked and simply stated "Treecko, Razor Leaf!" and he obeyed. He ran forwards and whipped up a storm of leaves from his tail. He then shot them straight at the Onix which was doing a lot of damage. Onix couldn't move and by the time Treecko stopped shooting the leaves, Onix fainted.

Roark smirked. He then returned the fainted Onix to his Pokéball and sent out another. This time the Pokémon looked like a raptor made of stone. Its head was a mix of half blue and then half grey where as its body was grey then it's back and tail was the same color of blue. I pulled out my Pokédex and read "Cranidos, Head Butt Pokémon. A lifelong jungle dweller from one hundred million years ago, it would snap obstructing trees with head butts."

I figured I had this in the bag so I said again "Razor Leaf Treecko!" and he shot out his leaves again, hitting the Cranidos head on but unlike the Onix, Cranidos didn't fall instantly. He was still up after the leaves dispersed.

"That's right Cranidos, show her whose boss! Head butt the Treecko!" Treecko was too slow and the Cranidos plowed right into him sending him flying across the room. It looked like he wasn't getting up but then as I cheered him on he stood up, a bit wobbly. Another hit like that and Treecko was a goner for sure.

Cranidos reared up for another charge. If Treecko timed this perfectly then I would win for sure. Cranidos charged, running faster than I thought was possible of him. He was inches away from Treecko and Treecko wouldn't move because he was awaiting my orders. I waited just a moment longer before saying "Jump Treecko, jump!"

It was perfect, Treecko jumped over the Cranidos and cleared him easily. Then he swung around in mid-air so I said "Razor Leaf!" and he pelted the Cranidos with leaves again. That plus the running head long into a massive boulder made the Cranidos faint.

"Wow, I can't believe you outsmarted me. That was amazing. Here you earned this." Roark said as he walked up to me. He returned Cranidos to his Pokéball and then handed me a sparkling badge. "That's your proof that you beat the Oreburgh Gym. Oh and you, Twilight was it, you might want to teach that Abra of yours a decent move and then try again. I'm here every day just waiting for people to battle."

We bowed to him and returned to the Poké Center to heal up again. "Don't worry about it. We will train a little and then you can beat him to a pulp next time okay."

We heard a gasp at the counter where our Pokémon were and we rushed over. Treecko had begun to glow and a light was enveloping him. "What's going on, why is my Treecko glowing?"

"He is evolving. It's a good thing, he is changing form, becoming stronger. Most Pokémon do that, they become stronger as you train them." The nurse explained.

The glow faded and where Treecko once stood now stood an entirely new Pokémon. He now was taller, thinner and had a long leaf on his head, many leaves coming from under his arms and a long tail made of leaves. He certainly looked a lot cooler than last time. I pulled out my Pokédex and read "Grovyle, Wood Gecko Pokémon. It lives in dense jungles. While closing in on its prey, it leaps from branch to branch."

"Wow that is really cool. Maybe if we get my Charmander to evolve then I might be able to beat Roark!" Twilight said.

We rested for a little while longer then got our Pokémon back and headed out to Route 203 to train. Just as we were leaving I turned to Twilight and said "Well a bit more training and maybe you might be as strong as me!"

We laughed as we walked, the sun setting behind us but we didn't care. Night time was still a good time to train in my opinion.