#requiem arc

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

you okay, sweetheart?

...I'm fine. Tired, mentally more than physically, though I have been running around a fair bit today, but it's nothing a good night's rest can't fix. But everyone else...

As soon as Interpol takes our official statements, Twilight and I are heading out of this place, I think. We plan to go south to Cyllage, everyone's stable enough to make that short trip and then we'll see a pokemon hospital that's not quite as overwhelmed as the center here in Geosenge. I finally convinced Arden she'd be better off resting in a ball for a little while and keeping off that leg. But she'll need a cane, or crutches, or something, and there's not anything here even for me to use as a temporary splint or anything.

And once we leave... I hope Twilight has a plan for how to deal with this place. The Ultimate Weapon still has charge. I don't think Lysandre's in any shape to come back and try it again, but it still doesn't feel good to just leave that power laying around.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

[An audio recording is attached. There is some regular, quiet beeping in the background, suggesting the setting is still in the pokemon hospital in Cyllage City.]

Hi Twilight!

Hey! Good to see you again. Both of you. All patched up now?

That's right! The doctors said I'm fully healthy and ready to get back to competitive battling immediately!

No they didn't.

Alright, fine... they said I should take it easy for two to four weeks and you should bring me back in if anything got worse.

How are things back at the labs?

Well, there's good news, and there's bad news, and there's... well, there's a lot of news. So, the labs should be safe, I took the Ultimate Weapon key with me and left everything sealed with magic, and I've got Bryony and Celosia working on a way to convert the Weapon into something more useful. And I talked to Interpol on my way out, and they say they've captured Mable and most of the Team Flare members who were in the area. There's a few injuries from people hitting their heads as they passed out, but nothing too serious. That's the good news.

And the bad news?

They couldn't find Aliana. She must have woken up from the perish song just a little earlier than everyone else, and she escaped. No telling how many others she shook awake and took with her either. I still can't believe she sided with Lysandre against all of Kalos, she was always such a good friend...

I know. But we can't assume she'll cause trouble. After all, she's now without her leader and her science equipment, so what could she really do?

And there's more. I... I asked Interpol to let me be the one to tell you both this.

What is it?

Lysandre has second degree burns over much of his body, and is being kept in a medically induced coma. They say he's stable, but... not in good shape.

...Oh. He's alive, though. Professor Sycamore will be happy to hear that.

That's not all. One of his pokeballs sustained damage from fire, and it won't open. They think Lysandre's mienshao is trapped inside, fainted from battle. The ball has been sent to the Professor in Lumiose, because he might get it open safely and the pokemon in there would know him already and trust him. But then...

Then what?

The pyroar. He's... Interpol told me... Lysandre's pyroar didn't make it. He died before reaching a hospital, of massive blood loss from a neck wound. There was nothing the agents there could do.

Arden, you fucking killed him.

[Recording ends.]

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Hi Arden! Glad to see you’ve lost none of your spunk and relatively little of your blood.

And so we logically conclude that spunk must be contained somewhere other than in the blood! Further research is needed, but perhaps it's in the spleen... or maybe in the fluffy tail fur...

That's what I imagine Twilight would say, anyway. She's on her way here now apparently, and I'll have to pass on that the doctors said her emergency bandaging job was pretty good. Thanks for checking in!

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

[A photo is attached. It shows Arden in a hospital bed, with her right leg bandaged and elevated. She is giving a middle finger to the camera.]

I lived bitch

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Sorry for not giving you all updates for a bit. Everything's okay, we got to the pokemon hospital in Cyllage City and I was just so focused on making sure everything was alright and my team and Twilight's team and everyone were getting the treatment they needed that I just did not check rotomblr until I got a free moment, and it took a while to get one.

Arden's going to be okay, the doctors said, but she will need a mobility aid for a while. She didn't need a blood transfusion or anything. Apparently what she said at the lab door was right, most of the blood she was covered in wasn't hers. Which, on one hoof, that's great! My friend, my first pokemon, my reckless, heroic Arden, is going to recover from all her reckless heroics and we get to enjoy a safer Kalos at each other's sides. ...On another hoof, that was a lot of blood and it had to come from somewhere. I didn't see where they took Lysandre or his pokemon, I didn't even get a good look at them back at the lab... horrible as their actions were, I do hope they're getting the medical treatment they need too.

Anyway, I'd better go for now. Twilight said she'd call around this time with news from Geosenge, and I don't want to miss her.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

See, what you want to do is find yourself a carpenter. They're the experts on wood, plus they make enough custom mobility aids per year to have some experience. Wood is a popular choice for canes because it's so much lighter than metal, and it puts less strain on the body overall.

...You know, that makes a lot of sense now that you mention it. I don't suppose you'd know where I could find a carpenter in the general west-Kalos area? Not that location matters a whole lot when you know a pelipper, but still.

Oh, hold on, I think Twilight wants me in the other room. I hope we're getting out of here soon...

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Oh gosh, I'm sending my well-wishes for Arden! She deserves a good rest after doing so well.... and I hope she can find a better stick, too, that looked brutal.

Thank you. She needs a good long rest, and it's going to be a struggle getting her to take it. Battling has been her primary activity for so long now, and I can't imagine any doctor looking at her and saying she's good to keep doing it, not until she can stand and move unassisted again.

I wonder... she'll need a mobility aid, and she'll need a new casting stick for her fire after she broke the old one on that poor pyroar. And I know her original stick was just a random stick she picked up in Santalune Forest when she evolved the first time, but I imagine it still had a lot of sentimental value. There's no fixing it, but I'm just thinking... what if we got her a new stick that does double duty, something that helps her walk right now and then also works for battling when she's able to again? Something durable, and fancy, and that really shows off her dedication to becoming stronger and using that strength to protect everyone.

I'm... not actually an expert on delphoxes, Arden's the only one I've known, but I imagine to user her fire moves it would have to be fully wooden and not have a rubber grip or endpiece. Though I suppose that could be removable as needed. I'll keep thinking about it, I guess, but I do think she deserves a quality replacement and not just whatever happens to be on the ground. Both to help while she heals, and as a thank you for quite literally saving the entire region with her bravery.

[the-fluffiest-trainer]

Pelipper mail! It’s from @the-random-mail-service

A singular sock

Oh. Of course. Nothing stops the random mail, not even the end of the world.

[A picture is attached. Fluttershy is wearing a single thigh-high pink and white striped sock on her left foreleg, in front of a background of heavy machinery and fluorescent lighting.]

One sock, the only thing to make it out of Equestria. One out of four, so it's not even usable as a sock, just as another bandage to tie around someone's wounds. And there's no shortage of those.