Shard: Welcome back everybody!

Thunder: YEP! *Is wearing a party hat*

Me: Thunder, what's with the hat?

Thunder: It's obvious isn't it? *Puts a party hat on Shard*

Shard: Yeah, you seriously don't know?

Me: *Shakes head*

Thunder and Shard: *Gasps*

Me: What? What is the problem?

Thunder: *Presses button and a huge explosion happen in the distance*

Me: WHAT THE HECK?!

Thunder: *Shrugs* Better than a drum roll. You had more than 100 views to all of your stories in one day for the first time ever, and you have 50 reviews for this story! That is what this big deals about!

Me: Oh, I totally forgot about that. *Slaps my forehead*

Shard: Actually when you say that out loud, it doesn't sound like that big of an achievement, the 100 views in a day thing.

Thunder: Yeah… I guess you're right. Although it's still her first time she reached 100 views in one day.

Me: In my opinion, that's a big achievement.

Shard: Duh, you're an author.

Thunder: Ugh, this is taking a while. ONTO THE STORY :3

Fawn's POV

I stood up in front of the glaceon, trying not to seem afraid. Actually, I was pretty scared because I just walked into this den and woke up a Pokémon that could tear me limb from limb, so I wasn't sure what could've happened. Luckily though, this glaceon was so nice. "Anything!" I persisted, wanting some answers.

The glaceon looked right at me, standing about a foot away. I was a bit intimidated with the fact that this Pokémon was about three times my height. "Okay, well first, tell me your name. Then secondly, tell me how you found my den, okay?" she asked. I felt a little annoyed now, not worried. It was pretty easy to notice that she was talking to me like I was a baby. She had her voice high-pitched and she was saying it really slow and with a lot of optimism.

"My name is Fawn!" I yelled without hesitation. "Also, can you not talk to me like I'm a baby? I might be a cub but I'm pretty smart for one! Yes, I could tell!" I paid really closely to her reaction. She looked a bit surprised, but quickly shook the feeling off.

She didn't mention anything about what I just said, but she started to talk like I was a regular Pokémon. "And how did you find this place?" she asked.

"Well, here's how it happened," I started. We both sat down, knowing the story was going to be long. "Well it all started when I saw you with Ruby, and I watched you run off into the woods…"

Flashback

I watched the glaceon run off into the distance through the trees, and soon she was out of sight. I continued to stare at the area where she disappeared into the greenery, and then I noticed a bird-like Pokémon and some sort of grass fox-type Pokémon run in the glaceon's direction.

What just happened? That luxray had to be Ruby without a doubt. That had to be the same luxray that everyone says is nice and generous, but was that really true? I turned over to face Scarlet to tell her what I've just seen, still baffled.

"Scarlet, did you just see that? I just saw Ruby nearly kill this glaceon!" I exclaimed. Scarlet wasn't really paying attention till I finished talking, and then her ears stood up straight. She turned away from Copper to face me with a stern look.

"Fawn," she started with a surprising stern voice. "Ruby is one of the nicest Pokémon in the forest, and you know that. What, are you trying to spread a rumor so she looks like a monster?" I didn't know what to say, but she didn't believe me. I felt my frustration starting to rise.

"Scarlet, I'm not trying to frame her! It's true! I saw it with my own eyes! Ruby snarled and growled and her fur was sticking up everywhere, and she looked like a Pokémon created from Darkrai himself!" I exclaimed. Scarlet just gave me a non-believing glare.

"Stop it Fawn. Copper and I both know that Ruby is just a sweetheart. Stop trying to make her look bad. Plus, I don't even see a glaceon anywhere, so you must be lying." My ears started to lower in depression. They still didn't believe me.

"But it's true! The glaceon ran off into the forest in fright because of Ruby!" I whined.

Copper started to talk. "What's a glaceon?" he asked.

I was going to answer him, but Scarlet did it first. "It's an ice type that looks a bit like a fennekin but is blue and bigger and with a less furry tail," she replied. "A bigger ice fennekin."

Pouting, I tried to think of a way to convince them. I surveyed the field, but I saw nothing that left any trace of that glaceon. Right now Ruby was with something related to a glaceon except it was yellow with spiky fur and blue eyes, most likely an electric type. Maybe if I talked to that Pokémon, it would know where the glaceon lived.

No, I didn't want to go anywhere even remotely close to that demon luxray. If Ruby could send a fully grown Pokémon like that glaceon running for the hills, who knows how freaked out she could make a cub. The next best thing was to chase after the glaceon and hopefully I'd be able to track her. I turned around to face the two fennekins.

"Copper, Scarlet, if you're not going to help me, then I'll just go by myself," I announced without a second thought. They both looked at me with the kind of stare that says 'Are you crazy?' Well if they weren't going to support me or at least believe me, then I'd just go solo.

"Fawn, you're going to get in trouble! If you're not back by sunset, your mum won't be the only one who's angry at you, but also the Clan's Chief!" Copper whimpered.

"Yeah, listen to Copper! He's talking some sense, but what you're about to do is just plain crazy!" Scarlet complained. I stood as tall as I could, my fluffy tail sticking up tall behind me and my ears pricked up. My face showed only persistence and courage.

"I'm not going to back down now! I've made up my mind, and I don't care what you guys say! You guys don't even believe me!" I yelled. "It's not even close to sunset. I have a few hours to find her which is more than enough!" Before I could hear any more of their pleading, I had already turned around and started to dash towards where the glaceon had run off. I heard the startle cries and gasps from the two fennekins, but when I looked over my shoulder, they didn't start to run after me. They were being such terrible friends today.

Soon I was past the trees and now away from the Orchard Hillside. Even though I hadn't dashed that far, my heart was starting to beat out of my chest and I was panting like crazy. My lungs were working overtime and my tail was starting to drag around on the floor. It sucked being a little cub because I could barely run a small distance. Now I would either keep running and collapse at any second, or walk till I was ready to run again.

Five minutes of walking had passed. I decided to go with another tactic and try to track the glaceon instead of running around randomly. I had my nose an inch off the ground, sniffing around to find the glaceon's scent. I had no idea what a glaceon smelled like, but it was worth a try. I was also looking at the ground just in case the glaceon had dropped something that I could've used to track her.

Then suddenly, about another minute later, a shadow suddenly casted over me, and before I could stop and check what caused the shadow, I had bumped into something fuzzy. I immediately jumped back, surprised and worried. I cowered toward the ground, afraid at what I had bumped into. I covered my muzzle with one of my paws and my auburn eyes with my other paw.

I moved one of my paws a bit to see what I've ran into. Staring at the bottom of the creature, I saw a pair of pale pink deadly talons. I couldn't look away from them for a moment, but quickly snapped out of my fearful trance. Looking farther up, I saw several tan feathers, and then some light brown feathers as well. I got a glimpse of a sort of feathery tail to see a mixture of light brown and pink tail feathers. The tips of the Pokémon's wings were tan and then the rest of it was that same light brown. The beak was a shade of pink a bit darker then the shade of pink on the talons, and this bird Pokémon had a pink feathered mane. I was stunned on the spot. This looked like the sort of Pokémon that ate cubs for breakfast like what Mum tells me about!

Shivering with fear, my instincts were screaming at me to run away. I wanted to listen to them and run as far as I could, but I was frozen with fear. Staring up at the bird, I watched it slowly turn around. I expected it to see me right away, my tail falling lifeless to the floor with fear, but it didn't see me yet. It looked confused when it saw nothing in front of it, but then it looked down, straight at me. It started to stare at me with shocked eyes. The Pokémon was staring at me with a questionable stare. I couldn't control myself when I accidently started to whimper.

"Huh, who are you?" the bird Pokémon squawked. I didn't say anything, still staring at it with wide eyes.

"It's a fennekin cub," a Pokémon voice pointed out, coming out of nowhere. I looked around a bit to notice a second Pokémon was here. It looked a bit like a glaceon, except it wasn't blue but mostly tan. Her tail and ears represented leaves and there was a big leaf on the Pokémon's head. It was most likely a grass type. The leaf fox Pokémon pawed up till it was right next to the bird.

"A cub, why's a cub out here?" the bird Pokémon asked, now talking to the leaf head. The grass type looked at me again, now ignoring the bird brain. I realized these were the two Pokémon that ran after the glaceon, but some reason the glaceon wasn't in sight.

"Hey, don't worry, we're not going to hurt you," the grass fox reassured, making me calm down just a little. "Now, let me introduce ourselves. I'm Petal, and I'm a leafeon. This bird Pokémon over here is Skylar, and she's a pidgeotto."

So that meant the leaf fox was called a leafeon and the intimidating one was a pidgeotto. Even though I knew who and what they were which felt a bit more reassuring, I still was cowering on the ground, terrified.

"Come on you pipsqueak!" Skylar started to yell, making all my fears come back to me. I tried to get as close to the ground as possible instinctively, knowing that this pidgeotto was going to attack me soon. "Now stop that flinching and get up! Why do-" She started, but wasn't able to finish when Petal interrupted her.

"You're not helping Skylar," she said through gritted teeth. You could tell she wanted to shout it, but some reason she was holding it back. The leafeon took a few more steps close to me which made me flinch, but I felt calmer than before for some reason. "Now, we're both not going to hurt you. Skylar might seem a bit scary, but she really is nice when you get to know her," she explained. I felt a lot calmer already, but was still a bit frightened by that pidgeotto. Hesitating, I slowly climbed onto my four paws; my eyes darting in between the two Pokémon, never having my gaze leave their sights. They didn't make any moves to get closer to me or any harmful gestures. Once I was fully up, I tried to act tough by forcing my ears to stick up, standing as tall as I could, and my tail held high.

"So, what are you doing out here in the forest, all by yourself?" Petal asked. Skylar was looking at me with a grudging glare for some reason, but I tried not to look afraid.

"I'm here to find a glaceon, have you've seen one run off this way?" I was trying to act like a Pokémon from some major government organization, thinking it would seem intimidating. Then I realized what I had just said. I must've looked stupid since I just blurted that out and was acting all top notch. Of course they knew about the glaceon since they raced right after her when she left. Petal looked at me oddly from the way I said that, but then she tried to cover her confusion up, which didn't work.

"Oh, you mean our friend?" Petal asked. I started to relax a bit and slowly was slipping out of my confident image. I stared up at the leafeon, hoping she'd tell me where the glaceon's den or pack was. I nodded frantically to answer her question. "Okay, well I don't think it'd be nice to just tell you where her den is… so-" She wasn't allowed to finish.

"Yeah, so beat it pipsqueak!" Skylar yelled. I started to cower again, now back in a lying down position.

Petal turned around to face Skylar. "You're still not helping Skylar, so shut it!" she hushed, and then turned around to face me. Knowing what Petal was going to say, I already got back up onto my paws. "Now… like I was saying," she started, eyeing Skylar over her shoulder for a second. "It wouldn't be nice if I just told you, because I barely know who you are, but I can just give you the general direction if you want." My ears shot up. Finally we were getting somewhere. I found it weird though, the way Petal just said that. I mean, seriously, 'it wouldn't be nice if I just told you', what the heck?

"Where?" I asked, my fluffy tail starting to wag a little. When I noticed I was doing that, I used one of my forepaws to step on it, forcing it to stop immediately.

Petal looked over towards my right. "Just go north, in the snowy area. Find a lake and a tree that's burnt to a crisp and you should be nearby," she informed. The snowy area, I didn't know there was a snowy area in this forest. I wished Mum told me more about Sugarcane, and then maybe it'd be easier to find this glaceon.

Immediately, I started to head north, or to my right. Why did Pokémon say things like north and south instead of left and right? It is way easier to learn what's up from down instead of east to west. I remembered that I should've at least been polite though while I was running, so I looked over my shoulder to face the two Pokémon. "Thank you!" I shouted, seeing the cheerful expression of Petal and the annoyed one of Skylar. I turned around to see where I was going, my eyes growing wide. I quickly jumped to my left in a barrel roll, seeing I almost ran straight into a pine tree. Quickly I got back on my paws and continued to race towards the snowy part. Well I learned something from all of this: Look where I was going when I run, there's a snowy part of Sugarcane, and that I should be cautious around bird Pokémon.

I continued to run, smelling and hearing different things along the way. Within a minute I felt as if I could collapse from exhaustion. My speed had to be taken down a notch to a slow jog, making me feel a bit worthless. Why was it so hard to run? I've seen several Pokémon run twice the speed I was going and were able to last longer, but I could barely dash for thirty seconds. Maybe it was the fact that the fastest Pokémon were fully grown, and that some of them were born to have speed, like a Flygon. One day I'd learn how to run super-fast, and be one of the fastest fennekins in the whole clan!

It felt like forever. I passed countless Pokémon and trees, smelled hundreds of weird unrecognizable scents, and felt as if my heart was about to burst out of my chest. My heartbeats were pulsing hard in my sensitive ears. Each step felt like an eternity, but I continued to pad on. Soon I was slowed to a walk and I haven't even reached the snow. I started to wonder if I was heading in the wrong direction and thought about turning around, but I decided to continue and walk a bit longer.

Minutes passed and slowly I had regained my energy. I wanted to run farther north once I felt the newfound energy, but resisted the urge. I had to save the energy for running back if I had to. Another minute had passed, and then a cool breeze blew through my yellow fur, a comforting breeze. I haven't felt anything like the cooling wind before. Could've this been a sign I was getting closer to the snowy area, it had to be! I squinted and looked off into the distance to see if it was true. I stared at the horizon for a few seconds, and then I saw it. Beyond all of these pine trees was something white that spread far out, heading left and right. That had to be the snowy area! I felt a burst of adrenaline, now not going to hold back. I started to dash in that direction; relieved that soon I'd learn the truth about Ruby.

End of Flashback

"… and so I continued to run towards this snowy area. Soon I located the frozen lake and the burnt tree, and then I saw your den. I quickly ran all the way here, and so here I am!" I finished. This whole time the glaceon was listening intently, looking amazed. I must have been a good story teller, or maybe she was just surprised by the events that happened to me. Either way, at least I'd get some answers, but actually, I wanted to know the name of this glaceon first.

"So can you tell me your name?" I asked, staring at the sidetracked glaceon. She was looking off into the distance, something deep on her mind. Maybe she was thinking about her friends, or possibly Ruby. I desperately wanted to know the truth, but this glaceon was stalling me a bit. "Hello, you okay?" I questioned. I wished that I could wave my paw in front of her to get her attention, but she was too tall for me to even reach her face. Luckily though, talking a second time helped her snap out of it.

"What, oh, sorry, I was just thinking about something," she admitted. "So what did you want?"

I pouted, a bit annoyed. "I wanted to know your name," I repeated.

"Oh, the name's Shard," she replied, smiling. Shard was her name? I never heard a name like that before. It was so original, so unique.

"Cool name," I complimented. I wanted to say my name was better though, which was true, but that would hurt her feelings. "So Shard, now can you tell me about Ruby?" I insisted. Finally I was going to learn the truth. It felt like it's been forever, the impatience getting to me.

"Of course, so here's the short version. She's a horrible Pokémon. She is just terrible," she revealed. So this meant I wasn't wrong, and that Ruby was truly an evil person.

"I… I knew it!" I exclaimed. "Everyone thinks she's nice and generous. What is she really like?"

"She's self-obsessed. She doesn't care about other Pokémon and would do anything to make sure someone wouldn't find out. Few Pokémon actually know the truth about her, and I know most of it. Ruby's been torturing me ever since I was an eevee, and she had done some terrible things to me," she explained.

"Like what?" I asked.

"She threatens me. Since I know the most about her evil ways, she has done terrible things. The things she does most is making sure I fear her, and no matter how hard I try, I can't stand up to her. To make sure I fear her, she mainly makes her fur so huge she looks twice her normal size. Her eyes seem deadly and seem to pierce right through you; the eyes of a killer. She snarls and growls, her teeth as fangs as a desert's sand and are very sharp. Even from far away if you saw her like that, it'd send shivers down your spine. Even describing it makes me feel a bit scared," she admitted. I agreed with her; just the sound of what she does to Shard made me feel scared. She sounded like a demon spawn created from Darkrai and Giratina.

"What else does she do?"

"Oh, she just lives a giant lie. Everyone adores her and loves her 'charm'." Shard spat out that last word almost as if she hated it. "She's selfish and uses other people to get what she wants. If she ever wants something, she ends up getting it. The latest thing she wanted affected me… terribly." She looked down at her paws with a depressed expression.

Reluctantly, I asked the next question. "What, what was it?"

She didn't answer right away, but ended up admitting what happened. "He took my very first crush away from me." I gasped, shocked beyond belief. A Pokémon can take things, money, items, fame, but I could never ever trust someone who would take love. That would've gone way too far. "She somehow tricked my crush into being her boyfriend. We're still friends though, but he has no idea what he's really doing. It… it's just…" Shard didn't finish. I watched her eyes grow misty, about to cry. My ears started to press against my head and my tail fell limp to the floor. Shard lowered her ears and tail as well, starting to sniffle a bit.

To help her out, I ran over to her side and patted her on the back, as far as my paw could reach. It was obvious that she was trying her best to hold it in. If Shard started to break out into tears, I knew I would cry as well. Whenever you see a grown Pokémon cry, you feel as if all hope is lost and you just lose your mind. I knew right then that no matter what sickening thing Ruby would do to me, I wasn't going to stop till Ruby was stopped and everyone knew the truth.

"It's okay Shard," I comforted. "Someone is bound to find out about this. We have to tell someone." I had to tell everyone. If we don't, Ruby would never stop this.

Shard looked up, now staring at me. "We can't," she whimpered. I was surprised by her response. What did she mean?

"W-Why not?" I stammered.

"Some reason everyone who has found out about Ruby's true self has never actually gotten it through to anyone. Whenever someone finds out, they usually go and tell the first Pokémon they can. Usually every time someone tells someone else about Ruby, that Pokémon doesn't believe them. Several times, the Pokémon that doesn't believe what the other Pokémon saw actually tells Ruby themselves. That's when Ruby discovers someone has found out about her big secret, and then that's when she starts to threaten whoever knows about it to keep them quiet. Sometimes she already knows, and had already threatened whoever. So far I know no one who's stand up to her after the threatening though… except for one. Ever since then, that Pokémon has been living in fear of her with a permanent scar on her stomach to constantly remind her." My eyes were open wide, my jaw opened slightly with amazement. This had to be true because part of it already happened to me! My friends didn't believe about what I told them about Ruby, so Shard was telling the truth, one hundred percent!

"W-What else does she do, besides threatening?"

"She scares you so much with lots of the threatening. She does that mainly to make sure no one stands up and tries to stop her. The one Pokémon who actually stood up for her has been beaten senseless. Her name was Mist." The way Shard just spat that out gave me the hint that Mist wasn't that important, but I was still pretty curious.

"Who's Mist?" I asked.

Shard just shrugged. "It was a random female buizel who sometimes hanged out with me. She was more of an acquaintance then a friend though, but I felt really sorry for her when she was given that scar. I just try to forget about it. She moved out of the forest a few years back, part of the reason because she was tired of living in fear of Ruby. The fact that she was the only one who ever stood up to Ruby is the only reason I remember her. The confrontation happened in private unfortunately so no one saw it, but Mist told me about it a few days after it happened when I couldn't stop asking about the scar. Don't worry that much about her though." I found it weird the way Shard talked about it. It was as if it was no big deal, even though Mist was the only Pokémon who stood up for Ruby. Even though it seemed a bit weird, I had more important questions to ask her.

"Shard, why didn't you tell your crush about Ruby and all of her devious ways?" I asked. Slowly I've been piecing it together in my mind and remembered seeing Ruby with a jolteon earlier. That had to mean that the jolteon was Shard's crush without a doubt. Shard was there earlier with them, but she should've told the jolteon the truth about her.

"I could've told Thunder the truth, but it would be in vain. There was no way for me to tell if Thunder would trust me or Ruby, but I had a feeling it would be Ruby. Ruby threatened me right before I could tell him, and in order for her to threaten me, she was able to send Thunder away for a few minutes for the most ridiculous thing. She sent him away to go find more apples even though they were picked clean. Thunder obviously didn't want to go, but Ruby started to… kiss him, first on the cheek, then on the muzzle. It clouded up his mind and he did what she said to make her happy. I thought that if I told Thunder the truth, she'd start kissing him again, and cloud up his mind for a second time. If that happened… then first Ruby was going to attack me once we were alone, and then Thunder would think of me as a huge liar," she explained. After she finished, I understood what she meant. Ruby could've done whatever she wanted to trick Thunder, and Shard couldn't do a thing about it. It sounded so messed up. I didn't care about what had happened to Mist, I wanted to help Shard no matter what and stop Ruby.

I stood back up with a fearless expression. "I don't care what you say Shard, I'm going to help you stop Ruby, no matter what. If we work together, we can stop the pain she's caused Pokémon and not end up like Mist!" I exclaimed. Ruby may have been nice to Pokémon if no one knew what she really was like, but her real self was terrible. She didn't deserve anything she had, especially her fame and Shard's crush.

"Fawn, no, just stay out of this. I understand that you want to help, but it's too dangerous. I've told you the truth about Ruby, and that's that," she argued.

"No! Shard, I want to help you! No Pokémon deserves to be tortured like this!" I snapped. I wasn't going to leave Shard now, not after what she just told me. I wasn't going to leave unless she agreed for me to help her.

Shard stood up, towering over me. Suddenly I started to feel scared, seeing how tall the glaceon was compared to me. She could've forced me to leave her den if she wanted to. I swallowed hard, but then quickly forgot about that. She could force me out if she wanted to, but at least I would know that I had tried to help. Then Shard sighed and sat back down. Her ears lowered slightly and her tail overlapped her two front paws. She stared straight down at the ground. "Fine, if you're going to be so persistent. But I'm going to tell you one more thing first and see if you feel the same way still. If you still want to help, I'll let you, understand?" She looked up at me, staring me directly in the eyes. For the first time, I noticed she had these unusual but pretty purple eyes which seemed to match this beautiful gem that hung around her neck. To confirm that I was serious about this, I nodded with a determined look.

"Okay then, so here's the story. I've known Ruby ever since I was an eevee and she was a shinx. We were great friends." I raised an eyebrow, thinking that this was a fib. Seeing her serious expression, I realized she was telling the truth. "One time I was trying to find Ruby so we could play, but she wasn't at her clan at the moment, but her brother was, a luxio named Lobo, but at the moment he was a shinx. We introduced each other and then we started to hang out. One time we were staying out late, at the top of Silver Falls. He tried to kiss me there." My eyes grew wide. She was just an eevee! They both were way too young to even be alone together, let alone be in a relationship. I noticed however that Shard was telling it so fast and didn't seem baffled at all. It was almost as if she told the same story before.

She continued with a cracked voice. "I backed away before he could kiss me. He thought I loved him, and then asked me to date him right after that, but I refused. He growled and got real angry and then he threatened to tell his sister. I honestly didn't know what trouble would happen, so I called him bluff. He ran off, but I shrugged off the thought and headed home. The next day… he… t-they…" I started to feel worried a bit. If she was stammering like that, then that meant it had to be terrible.

"It's okay Shard, if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to, but I'll be ready to listen and support you if you do." Shard gave off a faint smile, than she took a few deep breaths. Then, she just let it all out and spilled everything.

Thunder's POV

"Bye Ruby," I said, waving goodbye to the beautiful luxray. She crossed over the border of her territory, gave out another one of those cute purrs, and dashed off. It was about time for me to head home, even though it was a few hours till it was dusk. I decided I'd just head home and relax the rest of the day, and maybe turn in early. I watched her run a while longer, making sure she made it to the group of dens in the center of the territory, and then I turned around and started to head home.

Smiling, I didn't know I could feel so happy, and I had no idea that a luxray could shower me with so many kisses. She absolutely adored me. So this was what it was like to be in a relationship. I never really had any friends in Maplewood, so I never had anyone close enough to me outside my family that could've been my girlfriend. Ever since that first kiss at the top of the waterfall with Ruby, I wasn't sure what to think. I had so many mixed feelings, but I had no idea how I really felt. I couldn't tell if it was happiness or if I was just lightheaded. Maybe that was what everyone else felt. Either way, it didn't really matter. My new girlfriend was one of the most popular Pokémon in the forest, and who else could say that?

I continued to walk along the thick spring grass. Flowers were blooming all around, several ferns and plants surrounding the area. Everything seemed calm and tranquil, a great evening. I stared around at all the greenery, seeing how beautiful nature really was. It has been forever since I had time to myself and to just admire my surroundings without any other Pokémon around. It was amazing.

My ears twitched when a loud squawk disturbed the peaceful forest silence. I looked directly up to see a dark black blur speeding down through the treetops, some sort of bird Pokémon. I stopped in my tracks to see who it was. The Pokémon swooped down at an outstanding speed, nearly ramming into a tree trunk. The Pokémon however shifted its wings several times so the bird did a loop to avoid a crash, slowed down quickly, and landed with grace. I was surprised to see that the Pokémon was actually Falcon, that staraptor pal of mine. So much for peace and quiet.

"Oh, hi Falcon, how are you?" I greeted cheerfully, and padded over to him.

"Just fine," he mumbled. "Thunder, did you go out with Ruby? Hunter told me everything." Suddenly I felt a bit worried. The way Falcon had said that made it sound as if going out with Ruby was bad.

"Um, yeah, she's my girlfriend now! Isn't that great?" I exclaimed, shrugging that weird feeling off. Falcon looked over in my direction, almost as if I was insane.

"Thunder, what about Shard!" he shouted. I raised an eyebrow, confused. We were just friends!

"Falcon, isn't it clear to you? Shard and I are just friends with nothing going on between us. Why do you seem so worried?" I really wanted to know what the fuss was about. It was like Falcon thought I was dating Shard.

He didn't talk yet. He started to stare at the ground, but he had a puzzled expression. A few seconds later, he decided to talk. "Have you ever thought about how Shard felt about this?" he blurted out. I wondered what he was talking about. She seemed fine when I saw her earlier, and she was excited to be hanging out with me tomorrow. I didn't see the big deal.

I was about to answer his question, my muzzle already opened to talk, but then I realized something. Shard did seem to be acting pretty weird today now that I'd actually thought about it. I snapped my muzzle shut, now in deep thought. She seemed very nervous and some reason that gem on her necklace was all dirty. Her fur seemed a bit roughed up and her face looked a little wet. There was something strange about her, but I couldn't pinpoint it.

"You see?" he chirped, interrupting my thoughts. I stared down at the ground, thinking he might be right.

Then I thought that I was just overreacting. Seeing how Shard was, she wouldn't just freak out over me dating Ruby. When I was with her that one day, I knew she wasn't the jealous type. She wouldn't freak out about Ruby unless something was wrong with her, but Ruby was a sweetheart! Shard probably just had some sort of bad fur day.

"Falcon, she's alright. Nothing is wrong with her. She was just… tired, that's all." I wasn't sure if she was tired, but if I didn't say something, and then Falcon would still push this. Unfortunately, Falcon gave me a disappointing glare, making me think he didn't believe me. I tried not to look guilty or regretful of my reply, trying to act as if I was really telling the truth. Falcon finally let down, that pressuring look of his disappearing.

"Fine, but…" he started, but he trailed off, looking away from me. "…but… never mind," he groaned. He was hiding something, but I didn't want to push anything. He didn't push the subject about Shard, so I shouldn't do the same thing to him.

"Okay then, well I'll be on my way," I announced. I started to walk away, stealing a last glace of Falcon before he was out of sight. That certainly was an interesting conversation; certainly awkward though. It was probably nothing though, so I continued to walk through the forest, all tuckered out from today. It was time to hit the hay.

Shard's POV

"…and there you have it. That's what Ruby had done to me," I finished on the break of tears. I nearly cried through that, but luckily I was able to hold back the urge. Fawn however had cried a bit, shocked by what Ruby had done. She was getting over it still, sniffling a bit. The fluffy fur under her eyes was plastered to her face from her tears, making her look like a mess.

"And I t-thought the thing she did to Thunder w-w-was sad," she sobbed, wiping a last tear from her eyes. I stared at my paws, the memory replaying in my mind with almost perfect detail. Phantom… Gem… I missed them so much.

"Do you understand now, Fawn?" I asked. "I don't want you to endure any pain from Ruby. This must have been the worst thing Ruby had ever done to anyone, and I don't want you to feel any of it. You need to stay out of this, so I'll ask you one last time. Do you want to help me stop Ruby?" I hoped she would say no. I didn't want her to be hurt, or else the responsibility would be pinned on me.

The little fennekin cub looked at the ground, defeated. She finally understood me. Now all I had to do was let her go, and then she would have all the info she wanted. Even if she helps me, it wouldn't work because no one would listen to a cub. Suddenly though, Fawn looked up with a look of determination, surprising me. "No! I will not let this go Shard! You're not going to do a thing about this unless someone pushes you into standing up to Ruby!" she exclaimed. Oh Arceus, please knock some sense into this cub.

I looked away from Fawn as I talked. "It's better this way. I don't want to end up like Mist. If I don't stand up to her, then no one will get hurt. It's better-"

"How is this better Shard?!" she screamed. My ears lowered even more, not looking up at Fawn yet. I didn't say anything, and Fawn just continued to talk. "This is not right Shard! We have to stop her! Out of every Pokémon in the world, you are the one who absolutely positively doesn't deserve any of this! You are the nicest Pokémon I've ever met, and I can tell that even though I've only known you for about half an hour! We need to stop this." I sighed. Fawn was right. I couldn't carry through the rest of my life with Ruby torturing me and fooling everybody. I lowered my head in defeat.

"Okay Fawn, you're right," I admitted. "I don't want to end up like Mist. If I stand up to her alone, then I will get beaten up so badly, but I think if we get a few more Pokémon together, we can finally stand up to Ruby." I lifted my head to meet Fawn's determined amber colored eyes. "Let's do this."

"That's the spirit," she agreed, and both of us stood up. Fawn looked out at the sky, seeing the sun was getting close to setting. "Oh, I better had back to my clan," she mumbled to herself, but then looked up at me. "Hey Shard, have you ever heard about the fennekin clan?" I answered her question by giving a puzzled look.

"Okay then, well someone will know, so just asks them when you get the chance. I'm terrible when it comes to giving directions." She laughed a bit then suddenly changed to a serious expression. She looked over at me with hopeful eyes. "Shard, we are friends, aren't we?" she blurted out.

"Of course we are. You may be younger than me, and I mean way younger than me, but you're still pretty awesome for helping me out. We are definitely friends," I replied, not lying a bit. Fawn was a genuine friend, and she would always be for this amount of kindness. She even convinced me how wrong it is to just let Ruby go on with this.

"Okay, thanks Shard, bye!" she yelled, now running off into the distance; however she was running pretty slowly. She was just a cub after all. I headed over to my straw bed, seeing how messed up the straw was. Straw seemed to be everywhere. Sometime later I would have to go and find more straw and remake the bed. Sighing, I lied down on the bed, mostly on that blue blanket. Several things were on my mind at the moment. Fawn, her clan, Ruby, how she was messing with me so much, how she was dating Thunder, the fact I was going to hang out with Thunder tomorrow, and several other things. Even though several things ranged from 'not that important' to 'deadly serious', I shrugged off all the thoughts for now, trying to get some sleep. I burrowed myself as deep as I could into the soft fiber, wanting to fall asleep as quick as possible and forget that this day had ever happened.