Catching Magic

There was a bang that made the ponies shoot straight into alert mode, Fluttershy diving back under the covers in a flash. The other three peeked out of their rooms to spot Henry already up and at 'em outside. The ponies hadn't expected it, while everyone else had and were still asleep – aside from the human's Pokémon team, of course.

"Oh, you're awake," Henry said, once he spotted the four of them, Fluttershy just now peeking out her window. "Sorry about that, accidentally hit something."

Dash, looking perturbed at being awake this early, turned to go back to bed, "Jus' keep it down, 'm tryin' to sleep here."

"Just be ready in an hour, or I'll leave you all behind."

"Are ya'll serious? An hour?" Applejack asked tiredly.

Henry just nodded, focusing on making sure he had enough berries and of the right kind in his pack, and that they were packed right. The girls that were now awake decided to just get ready to leave. They'd have to wake up Rainbow later. Henry raised an eyebrow when he saw Twilight stumbling out to the backyard, looking very much like she was still asleep.

"If you need to wake up, step into the pool or something," He suggested. "Or you can get some soda from the kitchen..."

"Do you have any tea?" She asked, before yawning wide.

Henry nodded and headed to the kitchen, "Try some wake-up stretches. Mightyena's doing them, just follow his example."

Twilight looked over at the wolf-like Pokémon, whom was indeed, stretching. Too tired to really think about what she was doing, she just started to stretch. By the time the human returned with some hot tea, the purple unicorn was far more aware of her surroundings – and looking a bit sore.

"Oww..." She moaned, holding a hoof to her side.

"Stretched too far?" Henry chuckled, holding out a cup of the beverage.

"Yeah..." She said, gratefully taking a sip of drink as she grabbed it in her magic. "Mightyena's brutal with those stretches, you know that?"

"I'm not sure if I should apologize for his stretches or point out that you did them of your own will..."

"Shut up..."

Chuckling lightly as he finished preparing, he went about the mansion, aiming to help the other ponies get up and ready. Applejack appeared to only need a little time in the shower, as she stepped out of her room bright-eyed and ready to go.

"At least one of you is awake," Henry grinned, getting a chuckle from the cowpony.

"Yeah, ah usually get up 'bout this time back home, so it ain't tha' hard for me," Applejack commented. "Ah jus' thought I'd be getting up later as long as we were here."

"Well, every now and then, maybe. But as long as we're travelling together, I like to get up and get going early. It makes it take less time to go between cities."

"That makes sense, but Dash ain't gonna be up early. Ever."

"If she wants to travel with us she will."

"Ya'll're serious about leavin' her behind?" AJ frowned.

"Of course not, but I do want to get moving soon," Henry said, shaking his head. "If all else fails, we could do the cloud thing again, but put the 'leash' on me instead."

"Tha' sounds like a good idea."

Henry gave a nod, "And since Fluttershy can bring a cloud down, we'd just have to move Dash."

"Tha' might be the hard part..." AJ admitted. "She don' like bein' moved when she's asleep."

There was a shrug from the human. They'd figure it out as they went, it wasn't that difficult.

1234567890987654321

"Just hold on and we'll get going," Henry commented to the cloud nearby, invisible to get through the town.

"Come back sometime soon, will you, sir?" Evelyn requested. "It does get oh so lonely out here."

"Then go on a date with Ryan or something, I'm sure he'd like that," Henry grinned to her, the grin growing wider as she blushed. If she weren't employed to his family, she would've swiped at him. "Later!"

On his way down the road, he heard behind him, "...That little brat."

He just laughed along with the mares on the invisible cloud that followed him, as he road his bike to head through the city for the next route. It took half the time it did than when they had arrived at Petalburg, if only because he was riding a bike this time. Once out of the city limits, Twilight happily cut off the invisibility spell, ready to go back to sleep.

"Didn't sleep well again?" Henry asked as he glanced up.

"I had the same dream," Twilight nodded, frowning as she did so.

"Had the same dream twice in a row? Hmm... I think there's some sort of belief about that, something like the law of coincidences or something. Maybe if you have it again it actually means something."

"The law of coincidences applies to science, not dreams!" Twilight rolled her eyes, giggling.

"No, it applies to anything that goes under its law. It has nothing to do with being only science, since it's a law about coincidences, of all things. The title alone makes it apply to anything. Besides, in this world, dreams like those are known for being tied to the legendaries and coming true."

"They are?"

"From what I've heard," the human said, grinning at Twilight's huff and Applejack's chuckle.

The ride from there was quiet for a bit, until Fluttershy spotted something off in the distance.

"Uhm... excuse me..." She said, just barely loud enough to catch Henry's attention.

"What's up?" He asked casually.

"Uhm... is... is that normal?"

"Is what normal?" He asked, looking where she pointed. He immediantly came to a halt at what he saw. "No, that is most certainly not normal..."

"Are... the Pokémon over there alright?"

Henry paused to think, a serious look on his face, "I don't know... I think we should check it out."

"What do you think it is?" Applejack asked.

A shrug, "A wild Pokémon probably. In that case it won't be anything to worry about. Otherwise, I don't know what we'll do."

On bike, it took little time to come to a gentle stop at the slope above the smoke. Henry's eyes narrowed at what he saw.

"Umm... who're they?" Dash asked, finally awake.

"Not people you want to be friends with... we better get down there."

"How?"

Henry leaned over the cliff to look down at where the people down there were, and to take a closer look to see how intense the cliff's slope really was. Then he smirked as he backed up the bike.

"Hold on."

The ponies looked at each other, then AJ understood, "Wait, sugarcube, ya'll can't be thinkin' of –"

Too late, Henry was already racing for the cliff, and dashed off the edge, catching the ponies off-guard at the recklessness. There was a slight crashing sound as the back wheel landed, and it certainly caught the attention of the people at the base of the cliff.

"Stop him at once! Capture those four, they could be rare Pokémon!" Ordered the one who appeared to be the leader.

"I don't think so!" Henry cried, grabbing a Pokéball. "Blaziken, Flamethrower, distract them! Twi, break the leash, get over to that machine and destroy it!"

"Don't let them through!"

Chaos had erupted, Henry's six Pokémon were soon released, and the trainer had jumped off his bike and was multitasking between everyone on his team. The girls realized that these people must not be doing something legal for him to be so adamant about stopping them, and Twilight broke the magical leash.

"I'll get us there!" Dash volunteered, quickly launching into action and flying the cloud over to the right spot.

"Ah got this!" Applejack exclaimed, jumping from the cloud. Upon landing in front of the machine, she spun around and bucked it with everything she had – the metal dented. With only a couple more hits, the entire thing crumbled. "Ha! Tha' fancy machine ain't got a chance against an Apple!"

"This isn't over!" Growled a man angrily, a Mightyena leaping for Applejack, teeth bared.

Twilight reacted first as her horn glowed and shot a beam of pure magic at the attacker, knocking him back, "Don't touch my friends!"

"You little –"

"Get lost!" Dash barked, flying up to him and taking no time at all to punch his face in.

Grunting from the pain, the man decided that these four – no, three, the fourth was cowering on the cloud, were a nuisance. And that Henry kid was back... he had to report this.

"Retreat!" He cried, opting to ditch his Mightyena and go straight for the choppers nearby. The others in the red and black outfits followed as quickly as they could.

Henry walked over to the four ponies, whom were starting to relax after the adrenaline wore off. He gave an approving nod to the crushed machinery, openly impressed by the damage Applejack had caused on her own.

"Oh... oh my gosh," Fluttershy said quietly, coming closer to Henry. "Are... are you alright?"

The human blinked and looked himself over. There, on his right forearm, were several puncture wounds. As the adrenaline finally left his system, he winced and grimaced at the pain and the blood. Carefully removing his pack, he opened the top pocket and went straight for the first aid kit. Twilight snatched it out of his grasp with her magic, and made him sit down.

"What happened?" Dash asked, landing, grimacing at the wounds on his arm.

Henry shrugged, "I don't know. I guess I was too focused on making sure my team was alright and dodging attacks at the same time. Besides, they're not all that bad."

That was when Twilight poured the cleansing alcohol on the rather superficial puncture holes, making him hiss and the other girls raise an eyebrow. He just rolled his eyes and waited patiently.

"That's all I can do," The unicorn said after a while, zipping shut the first aid kit and letting the human put it back. "Be careful next time."

"Easily done."

"So, sugarcube, who were they?"

Henry scowled at the machine, "They're a group called Team Magma, and they're hell-bent on reducing all bodies of water to nothing and making the world nothing more than land."

"That's stupid, everypony knows that you can't live without water," Dash scoffed.

"No kidding. That's why they're fighting Team Aqua."

"Let me guess," Twilight said dryly, to which the human nodded.

"We'll have to keep an eye out for them as well," He confirmed, kneeling down by the machine and picking at the ground. "I just wish I knew what they were really after."

Fluttershy gave him a confused look, "What do you mean?"

"Both teams clearly have terraforming technology," Henry said, standing straight as he pulled out his PokéNav. "The map says that this crater is supposed to be a huge lake... but it looks like they used this machine to dry most of it up or something."

"Tha's jus' unnatural," Applejack frowned.

"And with technology that can do that, clearly they're not far from changing a lot more than just one lake at a time. Same with Team Aqua, I've seen them take a crater like this and fill it with water from just one or two big machines. I'd have to say they're planning something big..."

"Maybe something with those legendaries you mentioned?" Twilight suggested, although it was clear from her voice that until she saw one of said Pokémon, she would continue to doubt their existence.

Henry shrugged and started back over to his bike, where it lay on its side from where it had crashed. The girls followed shortly, setting up the cloud ride again as they headed back up to the main trail. From there, they headed off to their real destination – Foretree City...

A/N: I apologize for this chapter being shorter than the others, but it didn't seem right to force it to go any longer than this. The next one should be better.