91 CH29 (90), Evolution(s) And Breakthrough(s) (2)

The next day, an hour after breakfast, my mother left to do her training while I stayed at home with my father.

After Arya left the house, she walked towards their training ground, while thinking about the progress Ponyta and Sneasel had made since she had gotten them. Ponyta, more than Sneasel, was nearly ready for her breakthrough to the bronze stage. They only had to make sure she met all their training goals before Ponyta was allowed to break through.

Once she arrived at her training spot, Arya called out Ponyta, Sneasel, Emerald, and Rivers. She had brought Emerald and Rivers along to keep them safe in case someone tried to attack them. Additionally, Rivers was able to easily put out any fire caused during Ponyta's training, so that was another reason why he was here.

The two of them were naturally not just standing around but doing their own training as well, but the two already knew what she wanted them to do, and went at it without her having to say anything. Seeing them doing their thing, she focused on her newcomers.

"It has been some time now that you have joined me, so I would like to ask if you have thought about my offer to name you. As you have learned everyone on my team has names, so do the two of you want one as well, or would you like to be called by your species name?" She asked them, once she had their attention.

Ponyta showed her agreement, while Sneasel decided against a name for now. "How about Agneya," Arya asked, yet Ponyta disagreed rather quickly. "Hmmm, how does Rhiannon sound?" She gave another suggestion, and Ponyta seemed to consider the name for a moment before she shook her head once more.

"So, you liked that one better than the other first one, huh. Let's see, hmm. What about Epona? Do you like that one?" Arya asked, and to her joy, the newly dubbed Epona agreed. Happy with having found a name that they agreed on, she turned to Sneasel.

"I am going to start with Epona today, so you'll have to do your training on your own until I am done with her part." She told him before she began giving out instructions. "I want you to train both your Icy Wind and Metal Claw alternately. Try to swap between them once in a while," she said. "Sne," Sneasel curtly agreed.

"Your aim for Icy Wind is to reduce its width, to concentrate its power. As for Metal Claw, try to reduce the time it takes to form it, and the hardness of the Claw. You can use one of the boulders over there as your target." She instructed him while pointing towards the area he could train at.

Sneasel gave an affirmative cry and went over to the area she had pointed at. Seeing Sneasel following her instructions, Arya turned towards Epona. "We are going to check up on your progress with your moves first. Afterward, we will check your physical progress." She told her, and Epona agreed. They walked towards another set of boulders before Arya addressed Epona once more.

"Alright, I want you to start with 3 back to back volleys of Ember. Aim each volley at a different boulder." She instructed Epona while pointing at 3 of the boulder in front of them. Arya wanted to see how long she took between volleys and the strength of her Ember.

She also wanted to see how much she had managed to limit the spread of her Ember, since they had tried to concentrate the Ember into one area, instead of letting it spread out. Epona followed her instruction without hesitation. Arya noted that there was a more than a second delay between each Ember, and she had to nod in satisfaction at that.

Such a small amount of delay was already pretty good, and any further progress would be part of totally mastering the move. She went up to the boulder to check up on them after her Ponyta was done with her performance. She inspected the impact point and was happy with what she saw. "Well done. You have reached a point where I can say that you fulfilled my goals for your Ember." She praised Epona, and it was true.

From the size of the impact area, which was a bit larger than her palm, Arya could say that Epona had done a good job at concentrating her Ember. The same could be said about the strength of her Ember, which could be seen by the damage caused by the impact area. Since she successfully hit all three boulders, it showed that she also had no problem with aiming at different areas, while rapid firing Embers.

"Fire Spin is next. I want you to use the concentrated version first and then the wide-area version." Arya told her Ponyta, and Epona delivered. Arya checked the damage caused to the area the Fire Spin had been aimed at, and also measured the time it to for the Fire Spin to dissipate after Epona had fired it.

Predictably, the concentrated version cause more damage, and took longer to dissipate than the widespread version, but she was satisfied with the results of both. While the widespread version was weaker and persisted less than the concentrated counterpart, it targeted a wider area, which would be useful in case they had to use it against multiple opponents.

Those were currently all of Epona's long-range moves, so next up were her short-range ones. "Let's see your Flame Charge and Flame Wheel next." She said to Epona, who executed both flawlessly. For both moves Epona had to cloak herself in fire, but there was a difference in the focus of the moves. Flame Charge focused on using the flames to cause fire damage during the impact, while simultaneously boosting the user's speed a bit.

Flame Wheel on the other hand fully focused on using that fire coat to damage the target. Since the fire was not used for any other purpose, the fire cloak was more focused/concentrated, which meant it caused more damage on impact than Flame Charge. Additionally, the concentration of fire made it possible to burn the foe.

She had Epona use the moves a few more times to control all aspects and gave a pass for both moves as well. *neigh* "Po, Ny, Ponyta." Epona displayed her happiness over Arya's praise. After letting Epona be happy for a bit, Arya told her to show her Agility. Epona currently could stack 2 Agilities, which was acceptable, that number would increase with her mastery.

Her execution speed was acceptable as well, so Arya told her to demonstrate Quick Attack next. After checking up on Quick Attack and being content with the result she asked Epona to demonstrate her last 2 moves, Stomp and Double Kick. The result of Double Kick was good, but Stomp needed more work, which was understandable since it was a newly learned move.

"Okay, you can rest for a bit, while I go and check up on Sneasel." She told Epona, who laid down after hearing that. "We'll check up on your physical performance once I'm back, just so you know," Arya informed her relaxing Ponyta. After she said that, she walked over to the area Sneasel was training in.

Sneasel turned to her since he noticed her approach, but she motioned him to continue, which he did. She observed him performing Icy Wind for a while before she started to give her input. "Sneasel your current aim is to compress the area of your Icy Wind, so until you can get that part successfully down your execution speed is not important." She said, which made Sneasel look at her.

"You can train your execution speed after you have succeeded in the first part, until then take your time before executing the move. It is okay to be slow while using it as long as you manage to limit the area of Icy Wind." She elaborated, after which Sneasel nodded. It resumed using Icy Wind, but this time he took his time before performing the move.

"That's better, keep doing that until you can do it reliably. Once you have that down, you can focus on performing it faster." Arya encouraged Sneasel. She kept watching for a bit longer before she told Sneasel to keep up the good work and returned to Epona's side.

"Okay, time to check up on your physical performance," Arya said before she started taking things out of her Silph Co. bag. She first took out the weights and the straps to attach them to Epona. After that, she started to strap the weights on Ponyta one by one.

"Let's see your maximum carrying capacity first." She said while adding the weights. Arya slowed down at 70 kg and addressed Epona. "Tell me once you reached your limit. We don't want you to get hurt, alright?" She said, and Epona agreed curtly with a "Pon".

Arya could see Ponyta slightly straining at 80 kg and was pretty sure they were at her limit at 85 kg if they wanted her to be able to move while carrying that load. Ponyta conveyed her being at her limit at 87 kg, and Arya stopped adding more at once.

She had Epona slowly walk around while carrying that weight and measured the time. After 5 minutes she stopped her and started praising Epona while removing the weights. Once all weights were removed she patted her, before mentioning the next exercise.

"After resting for 5 minutes, I want you to run around the area 10 times as fast as you can," Arya told Epona, after which she gave her something to drink. Once the 5 minutes were up, she gave Epona the start signal and measured the time it took her to finish.

It took Epona 120 seconds to finish the 10 laps. Since 1 lap was around 400 m, that meant that she had run at 120 km/h on average. This was a great time, and she passed on the speed aspect. "Great! You've done a good job." She praised Epona, who soaked in her praise.

After praising her some more, which also doubled as rest, they started the next exercise, which was to measure her endurance. "Alright next up I am going to strap 61 kg on you, and you're going to run at 70% of your full speed for an hour." She informed Epona, who was not as eager to do that, but she still did.

Arya used some of the time while Epona was running to check up on Sneasel. She observed his Metal Claw training and gave her input here and there. Still, he was doing a good job with the move and she told him that as well. He was happy with the praise and continued his training with even more vigor.

After an hour was up, Arya gave Epona the signal to return and started taking off the weights. While doing that she checked up on her situation. After checking Epona's physical condition after her run, and seeing that she could still continue if necessary, she was satisfied with the result. She gave Epona something to drink and took out an oran berry from her bag.

"Alright, we're done with the all assessments. You've done a really good job Epona, and I am proud of you." Arya told Epona, and the Ponyta was really happy with the praise. Arya went up to hug her, and she stroked her mane while hugging her.

They stayed like that for a bit, before Arya gave Epona the result of their test. "Epona, you've done an awesome job. After seeing everything I can tell you that you are ready for your breakthrough." She said, and Epona got excited. *neigh* "Po, Ponyta." Epona exclaimed, and Arya agreed.

"Yes, you can break through now." She said and after receiving her confirmation Epona initiated her breakthrough. She shone in the light that happened during all breakthroughs before it settled down. Seeing that her Ponyta successfully broke through Arya heaped a few more praises on her.

Her other Pokemon that had noticed the commotion came over to congratulate her as well. After everyone celebrated for a while she told them that it was time to go back home, so she recalled everyone beside Emerald and made her way back home.

Around 4 hours after she had left my mother came back home. My father and I were relaxing during that time. We talked for a while and spent most of it watching TV. Yet, seeing her face radiating happiness, I could see that my mother had managed to achieve her goal during that time.

I could not think of something else that would cause her to radiate such happiness and satisfaction. It seemed one of her Pokemon, Ponyta most likely, had successfully advanced to the bronze stage. This meant mom now fulfilled all requirements to upgrade her trainer class.

As expected, she told us that her Ponyta, whom she had named Epona, had successfully reached the bronze stage. We hugged her and congratulated her. After staying like that for some time we separated and my mother called the alliance center in Pewter City to make an appointment for her trainer class upgrade. She managed to get one for the next day. We spend the rest of the day just relaxing and ordered some pizza for dinner.

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