Vulpix – Pinkie's Paradise

Pinkie plays Poirot with Pokémon: Theft on The Magnet Train Express

Hello Island Guests, I played another Pokémon Fan game! A Detective one at that! Based on the Hercule Poirot Novel, Murder on the Orient Express I shall have to investigate some thievery shennanigans on my way too of from Goldenrod city! I can’t completely tell which one.. but in this one hour romp I can most certainly tell you I will be investigating a “Theft on the Magnet Train Express”

Going for Gold

Theft on the Magnet Train express is a fun fan rom game that is set in the world of Pokémon Gold and Silver. Using Gen 5 Battle mechanics.. but deliciously old school 8 bit graphics we immediately get something that distinguishes itself from all the other fan games. For the vast majority of fan games and rom hacks out there all use the gameboy advance (Gen III) tilesets and sprite work. So from the get go we get a very unique game. This comes with it’s own strengths.. such as having a great atmosphere, the excitement to see sprites of Generation newer generations get a downgrade to 8 bit and the delightful nostalgia factor. There really are very few games feeling this unique when it comes to the rom hacking scene.It does come with some flaws as well though. This is arguably a non issue for those who do not dabble in Pokémon fangames on a regular basis.. but among all fan games there usually is a consensus on how these games are controlled. z,x and c are your main keys to operate menus and save while a or s activates sprint and either the f-keys or the keys surrounding s are used for registered items.

Theft on the Magnet Train express uses x to cancel actions but spacebar and enter as confirmation buttons. This is quite annoying. It’s very manageable but it feels very unnatural for me. There is this muscle memory and during that entire hour of playing this game it never really grew on me. I managed to pull it off but it never felt as comfortable as z , x , c. Now I could try again for the multiple endings this game has.. as it has 3 of them but this branching path does not come into play until the very last moments, almost making it more feel like an Endscreen difference than a different route. Which isn’t bad ..but it makes back to back replayability low. I will go back to experience the other two endings and find the hidden Pokémon.. I just won’t go back right now.. or anywhere this week! It’s one of those “I have an hour to spare.. let’s give that another shot type of deals’.So while I do commend them for choosing the harder and untrodden path you can sense and feel that the lack of proper assets kind of played a factor into making this game. Going for Gold .. made it a title only worth the silver.

Inspector Pinkie on the Case

In this game you play a woman named Ellen. After a blackout occurs in the magnet train from Goldenrod to Saffron city…. or the other way… Ellen goes out to investigate what is wrong and stumbles upon the best detective in the Pokémon world.. Looker! I love him and his theme has been given a 8bit rendition which made me squee with joy! There is a lot of love for the franchise in here and it shows in the tiny details. He challenges you for a Battle and I discover I have a Shiny Vulpix on my team. I beat the lookers Croagunk.. which I love because it is his signature Pokémon, and he names his deputy researching the strange events on the train. I will have to make way through the dangerous carriages of the train that are invested with trainers , Pokémon and even Team Rockett to solve a mysterious theft.. of something worth over 4 million Poké-Dollar.

Much more than just Pokémon battling you are engaged with solving this mystery! You do this by finding a certain number of items in each carriage.. Looker is such a good detective he exactly can expect how much evidence you can find in each carriage furthering your case. Some people want to battle you and with 30 ultra balls on you.. you also have a chance to start catching your own squad of Pokémon to assist your Vulpix. Some follow the wild grass mechanics but for the special ones.. you will have to go through some effort. What makes this game shine so much is that the story is not told through you to the things you need to do.. but through the things you CAN do. The Evidence you find will not cue the player in on what’s going on.. it all seems random.. but then if you check that other bookcase and find some exposition you suddenly start to piece stuff together. Depending on how well you piece things together you may get an ending for better or worse!

Inspector Pinkie is on the Clock!

Because of how the game is structured it let’s YOU do the work. It drops hints on what is going on, or where to go next but it never holds your hand. That one character that mentioned an item may become relevant three carriages later and you have to go back.. but where was he or she?! The game doesn’t tell you… it just whispers to you.. did you not talk to a person mentioning said item earlier?! The same style is chosen for the battles. Every Pokémon hits hard! You have a Vulpix so it’s defensive stats are not high even though it levels all wild Pokémon by level 10. It brings this new level of strategy to the table, you can easily knock out wild pokémon but trainers can easily knock you out as well. Even the wild Pokémon can! So you are going to have to strategize. Use Will o Wisp to burn and weaken physical attackers, yse Payback when you are being outsped.. go for high damage with flamethrower. You have a lot of options.. but you will also need them. You will need to work for your success.

The game never gets insanely hard but you are not used to having a pokemon with 0 IV and EV investments at level 35.. so the game feels weird. You need to work for success. From beginning to end you need to keep your head screwed on straight. There aren’t a bunch of healing items you can buy.. you are stuck on a train you will have to do with whatever you find. Burn your resources too much and you might get a bad end. I ended up catching a Sneasel for my team which I named Tracy and a Skiploom which I named Nancy.. which later evolved into Jumpluff. Tracy would use Hone claws to boosts it’s attacks and use Beat Down to strike down hard while Nancy would use sleep powder, mega drain and leech seed to stall my opponents to their doom! Vulpix would inflict burns and deal big damage with Flamethrower and Extra Sensory! I also had a Lickitung named Sherlick but he was just there to power up Tracy’s beatdown! I would have loved to use him.. but I could not make him useful enough other than giving me more leech seed stalls and bigger Beat Downs! All of it felt more “designed” and “clever” than my average Pokemon teams! So I like that here you really have to put in work.

Riding the Rails

While I do not mind putting in the work .. the game at times can feel a bit to chore like. That is mostly due to it being set in a train. You find enough evidence to unlock the next set of carriages go back.. talk to Looker.. and now you can access the next part. There is a road block so you need to go back.. grab an item.. make progress again, find the evidence, go back to Looker and so forth. It is all due to the fact that you are only on a train. It makes for a great setting for a mystery but too many of your events are contained in these new rooms. I would have loved it if old rooms now would trigger new events as well.. maybe there is something going on in the engine room, perhaps some earlier passengers are getting rowdy and you have to pacify them with a battle. Give us a reason to go back to these locations other than to just fetch an item. Looker is doing his own investigation while you do yours, have him get into trouble, have him instigate an event instead of you it would help the world feel more alive. Other Pokémon games do this as well. In fact even in Gold and Silver .. other characters than you “further’ the plot and you stumble upon it. This game lacks that element and as a result.. it feels a bit “colour by numbers”.

The mystery is also not THAT nicely paced. About during the middle part of the adventure you will have all the clues you need to figure out what is actually going on and while that might actually be by design I think it could have been paced a bit better. Let that one bookcase stand in a carriage near the end not near the middle. Maybe I am too trained into these type of stories that I figured out what was going on..but I think most of you would get it right away as well. A good thing about that though is how it is all very much discoverable with in game resources.. you do not need to know lore about Carkoal or about the Magnet train from Gold to understand what is happening here. It is a satisfying plot that does feel like it can be lifted from an actual Pokemon game.. thus not being overly dark.. it feels like it can be a part of the world. Some fun characters are created both in the present and the past of Pokémon so while the ride is very enjoyable it arrives at the second to last station early. Being early can be amazing..but since it’s not the station you need to disembark from you don’t get the benefits.. you know the train will just sit there and wait arriving at the end as scheduled. You can appreciate the environment a bit more.. but in the end it’s a bit of a moot advantage.

The Usual Suspects

To properly find out how this Pokémon detective game did we need to check how it functioned as a Pokémon Game, as a Mystery and as a game in general. Let’s start with the latter because that is where it scores the highest. For the hour that this game is long it is nice to see a non- hand holding game that lets you explore some rooms, uncover evidence but also sleuth for the REAL story yourself.. as you will notice inconsistencies. I really love that part of this fan game and I think this is my favourite short fan game all together. As a Pokémon game however this game falls short. It is great that they use the gen II tileset but Pokémon it plays into my nostalgia so hard and the music in 8 bit is FANTASTIC! I LOVED LOVED LOVED.. that.. yet it also comes with some hefty downsides. The Pokémon count is REALLY low! They had to make a lot of old looking sprites and while they do look amazing I would have wished for at least a few more.. Pokémon in it’s very concept is something of abundance… and while I do get that what I want makes no sense on a train I just don’t think the setting and core concept are that great of partners.

As a mystery it offers a very satisfying story and the way the mystery unfolds before you , I have rarely seen done better. Usually we all get all the important clues highlighted and here the important stuff is in the subtext! I adore that! We are just given a bit too much stuff to uncover that subtext. Some dialogue is a bit to on the nose. There are several characters that are aware of a situation that really tell you how everything works. It would have been more satisfying to encounter them closer to the end.. or have them experience the same confusion everyone in the train is experiencing.. enough to make you feel “hey something isn’t right here.. we got two conflicting stories here” At least it made me feel SUPER DUPER smart for figuring it out so fast! So that is nice.. but I loved this little romp so much that I wished I ended up just a bit more surprised.. and that’s what makes me grade this game with a medium high score. It is still one of the better short games out there.. when it comes to Pokémon.. yet it also misses some crucial elements.. it hyped itself up in the beginning.. just to let it weaken in the mid-section! it is passable by all accounts.. and it looked like it was going to knock it out of the park.. but the landing rough! I would love to see them tackle another short detective game in the same vein in a bit more open setting. That way it is easier to miss clues, put in more pokemon and get that extra diversity! A nice demo for a hopefully bright future! Please make another Looker game soon guys!

Snowy and the Seven Spoink Part 2

Today we continue the Fairy-Type Tale, Snowy and the Seven Spoinks. Which will get a third and final installment next
In the first part we saw an Alolan Vulpix being born from a Ditto and his wife Queen Ninetales. But after the queen disappeared he remarried another Ninetales to take care of Snowy… things did not end up well. The queen was obsessed with having the highest IV’s and EV’s in the land as her Rotom Dex told her Snowy had surpassed her after eating some Calcium. She ordered the huntsman to kill the little pokémon, but he took pity on her and let her escape in the forest. As the Queen demanded a heart to devour everything seemed lost for Decidueye when he suddenly encountered Swinub.
Catch up on part 1 here, otherwise back to our story.

Chapter 4: A Cabin in the woods.

Snowy ran and ran until her little feet could not carry her anymore, tears flowing for her eyes still. How could her stepmother be so evil? Why would she need to die? Now she could never go home and eat food from that nice spot again! It was all so unfair. Eventually Snowy collapsed and fell of a small ledge, landing in a soft pile of leaves fatigue immediately took over as her world faded away. She would have nightmares that night of her mother being chased by those horrible capturing humans, with their delicious food. Yet the humans would then turn into her evil stepmother who grinned as Snowy’s mother was taken away. She was her father being fainted and she was all alone. The huntsman showed up as he shot a spirit shackle at her through her heart. With Snowy dead in her dream she jolted awake.

Confused she looked at her surroundings, she barely remembered last night. Where was she? There were some mountains nearby, big cliffs as well, here and there she could see some caves in the mountain side. She was near the edge of the forest, trees began to thin revealing more mountains ahead. If Snowy would have kept running she might have ran into a dangerous cave.. or worse of a ledge. Snowy was scared of heights so decided to stick to the forest for now.. carefully walking again on her wounded paws. She would not be able to walk very far today, she would need some rest and food. Using her nose she sniffed to see if she could detect some food. Her senses told her there was something sweet smelling nearby. Following the scent took the Alolan Vulpix to a small quaint cabin with the door being wide open. There were a bunch of apples just sitting in a crate near the doorway. Snowy was sure the pokémon who lived here would not mind if she took a single apple right? Maybe it would be better if she just asked. ‘Hello is anyone there I need help’ Snowy said while popping her head in the door. She got no response as she noticed the cabin was in terrible shape. It sure was a mess in here. ‘Hello? Please I am injured and very hungry’ Snowy said while sniffing a bit, fighting against tears. Still no response. Could they be out? The place looks like a pigsty! Seven beds standing in the room but all the linens are wrinkled terribly, the slatted bases completely crooked. It kinda looks like Snowy’s bad after she jumped on it waiting for her mother to tell her a story all that time ago. As Snowy walked inside she noticed the kitchen was a mess as well. It looks like someone tried to make pancakes with nanab berry, but the batter is both on the ceiling and the floor, like if someone tried to flip the pan way to soon!. There would also be a lot of apples and a bunch of very rounded rocks on the floor.. some rocks smooshed some apples, all in all this place looks like a mess. Snowy then decided ‘I will clean this house then take a few apples as payment’ And so she began to sang a song while cleaning as an aurora veil appeared around her.

The Queen licked her lips after devouring the heart, that tasted very well. The heart of her step daughter would have made her even stronger now! She would look to the rotomdex on the wall and speak her usually worlds. ‘Magic Rotomdex on the wall, who is the most valuable pokémon of them all’. The rotom looked up at her a bit tired. ‘Again, my queen I already told you.. but very well I shall oblige…scanning….’ the queen snarled at the dex, she would dispose of him soon enough. ‘Scan complete, While non hold as much Effort Value as Decidueye, non have more IV’s than Snowy, her EV’s are quite good too she nearly is the perfect pokémon to whom even you pale my que…..’ The rotom dex was hit by a powerful Hex attack of the queen. He lived.. but cried out in pain. The huntsman betrayed her, she would deal with him later, now she had to deal with Snowy herself. The Queen would push the bookcase away revealing a hidden staircase. Walking down the stairs she entered the dungeons that had ‘collapsed’ all those years ago. She glared inside the first cell she came across, a weak fox like creature was chained to a wall there. ‘Your daughter is causing me trouble!’ the queen said. Ninetales stood up looking weakened. The queen smiled back at her evilly. ‘I guess I am going to have to use the same tactic on her I used to kill our husband’. Ninetales looked shook and teared up..but tried to sound brave. ‘Snowy will never listen to you’ The Queen snickered. “Maybe not to me..but to an old lady perhaps’ The queen than reverted her disguises and turned back into a Ditto.

Chapter 5: The Seven Spoink

Hardy the Spoink came back from a day of looking for pearls and mushrooms. They found some of both in the caves and he and his six pals were nearly back home! Jolly the spoink was following him closely, a very fast spoink that had the smallest pearl but he was always high spirited. Hasty was the third in line nearly as fast as Jolly but while in the caves he would rush his work a bit causing him to be a bit accident prone. He would never be able to get his defences up in time. Naughty was the the fourth in line, he always kind of wanted to walk in the middle because he liked to trick other spoink. He was a bit beefier than most other spoinks some of his friends even said he looked like a Jojo’s character. He liked to wrestle and muck about but because of it he wasn’t the most intelligent of the bunch not being able to stand up to the mental might of his brothers. Behind him was Quirky, the weirdest of the seven, he wasn’t particularly good or bad in anything but he really liked to perform skits he saw on tv once. He was mostly known from portraying Manuel from Fawlty Towers really well. Behind him was Sassy, the female spoink of the group, she at times could be very hard to deal with, she wouldn’t allow any man to mess with her mind but she was by far the slowest spoink of the group. The others always kept asking her why she said they should talk to the hand, as Spoinks don’t even have any. Even though she was the slowest of the bunch the line was closed by Lonely, he walked at some distance of the group. Lonely didn’t care about the pearl hunt as much! He would much rather stay at home all by himself and watch shounen anime shows, he learned kung-fu by watching those. He always told the group that he preferred 2d pokémon over 3d, wishing that he could be 2d himself. He was a bit cowardly though.. when Naughty would wrestle him he would not be able to defend himself as he just defended his pearl.

Right before reaching their house they began to sing a song. “Ho Hey, Ho Hey, we survived another day’ followed by some cheerful oinking. Not only would this song not get copyright stricken, in this day and age no one would saying gayfully about going to work anymore, instead they would be relieved the day is over. As the song concluded the party of seven arrived at their cabin, sighing that they would have to try and deal with the mess again. Making pancakes wasn’t that easy f you are constantly bouncing. Their beds could also not really handle them jumping on it all the time but they had to make due. Their home was also filled with pearls that weren’t all that functional. Perhaps those could be moved outside.
But what was this! Hardy noticed the pearls already had been moved outside! Both the grey and the red ones. He could not remember doing that. “Hasty go take a look’ he ordered. The latter wasted no time and rushed inside, without thinking too much of its own safety. “Clean” he responded. “Don’t you mean clear’ Sassy asked. ‘No I mean it’s clean!’ Hasty pointed it’s stumpy hand to signal everyone could watch. As the seven gathered in the doorway, they noticed a perfectly cleaned home as well as three eaten apples. ‘Oh HECK NO’ Sassy shouted as she noticed a little fox like creature sleeping on her bed, which had been fixed by having an icy block under it now”

Chapter 7: Grampa Drampa

Snowy was woken up by seven loudly oinking creatures. “What is she” Lonely asked from a bit of a distance. “I know nothing” Qurikly explained from a distance. ‘She might be a shiny Vulpix” Hardy concluded. Snowy looked and yawned. ‘She hella cute” Sassy said. “I am Snowy .. I am an ice type Vulpix… I was wounded and hungry so I slept here… and took a few apples but I cleaned in trade…” Snowy sounded a bit scared and confused surrounded by so many bouncy Pokémon. ‘There is a bad person after me so I was scared and I have no where to go’ Snowy teared up again she was still having a hard time. The spoink looked at each other and huddled together whispering. Eventually Jolly stepped foward and said ‘Well we got some good news for you kid, if you cook and clean in this place we can let you stay here for a while isn’t that a good deal’ Snowy bucked in excitement. Then she had a realisation. Wouldn’t you get in trouble for reducing me , the stereotypically female character of this story to just cooking and cleaning, while you a predominantly male group moves to work?’ Sassy winked ‘Well I am a strong woman who can handle myself in the manual labour amongst the guys.. and you.. have fix the bed so your a little handyman as well, I think that should be enough to keep this thing PC’. Snowy nodded! Okay I will stay then! So Snowy took residence in the Spoink Residence with her growing closer to the cute little pigs as she made them nice meals they would not mistake for pearls

Meanwhile Queen Ditto was making preparations for it’s plans. Ever after fool of a “brother’ rose to the throne he had been planning to rule over this kingdom, as it had great IV’s and EV’s.. and the king had much lower scores. By capturing his wife he would cause the king to grief and then when it transformed into that same looking ninetales he knew the king would settle for her. Using the castle’s secret dungeons for it’s plans only Snowy was in the way of the absolute rule of Queen Ditto. Like Ditto did to her father , the queen would poison her as well. In a disguise she would hand the daughter the favorite berry of the king laced with a terrible poison that causes a fake death. Little did they know! To give this berry to Snowy the queen needed a god disguise though, looking through her prisoners she found an old drampa that kinda looked like an sweet grandpa. ‘Perfect , she said as her bodily features began to shift towards that of an bearded green dragon. Minutes later Queen Drampa rose from the dungeons , looking at the just recovered rotom she asked. “Magic Rotom Dex on the wall, what is the area in which I can find Alolan Vulpix’. The Rotom Dex displayed ONE tiny in the entire land. ‘Excellent’ the evil stepmother said.

A few days later, while Snowy was singing at home she heard a knock on the door. The spoink were away for pearl hunting so she was home alone. Snowy opened the door to find a old Drampa standing in front of the door. “Greetings Child” he spoke sounding a bit fatigued. ‘I have travelled across the land to sell peoples these delicious Aguav Berries, rumors have it they were the kings favorite, and after his unfortunate passing I haven’t been really making any sales.. I want to feed my grandkids. Snowy stuck her tung out. Eeew I don’t like Aguav Berries… My dad always ate mine.. and my mean stupid stepmother always tried to make me eat mine. She’s a poopyhead meany mo! And a whore to!’. Drampa bit his lip… “You should..not speak ill of people that much child… she is a great queen…afterall’ . Vulpix shook her head ‘No she is like the worst queen there ever was.. and she smelled funny almost like slime’ Drampa took a step back muttering. ‘Are you sure you would not try an Aguav Berry? Maybe I can get you some other berries what is your favorite then? ‘ He asked. ‘Well I like Pecha Berries’ the vulpix said after some thinking. “Ah yes I can give you some of these tomorrow is that okay?’Vulpix nodded and would close the door. That evening she would tell the Spoink off the berry salesman and they asked her to order some Oran berries from the man.

Drampa showed up the next day carrying some Pecha berries he had laced with the poison the previous night, it took him all night to make the brew as he had to reside in the wild , with the castle being to far away. This time the poison was sure to work. ‘Hello again little lady I brought your Pecha berries the first order is free.’ He smiled at her trying to look like the gentle old man in his dungeon. ‘Oh thank you.. my friends the Spoink want to order some Oran berries as well could we do that? ‘ Snowy asked while bucking with excitement for her own berries. ‘Only if I can see you eating one of those berries you like so much Nothing would make me happier than a cute little princess like you enjoy the fruits of my labour. Snowy ate one of the berries and smiled. “That was delicious mister.. but it did have a bit of a weird aftertaste… did you use like a lot of mulch to grow these?’ The queen was baffled to why it’s plans weren’t working. She should have dropped dead did the poison fail? Recovering from the surprise Drampa eventually spoke. ‘Ah glad you enjoy.. Oran Berries for tomorrow right?’ Our heroine nodded as they parted ways. Back in the woods the Queen yelled out to her companion who came flying towards her. Rotom Dex, Rotom Dex! Why didn’t the poison work isn’t poison supposed to be super effective on her? ‘ Rotom Dex started an automated bit speech ‘ When a Pokémon consumes a Pecha Berry it will be healed of any poison. The words the queen uttered after that do not belong in a fairy-tale but you might find them if you watch a Gordon Ramsay show.

Chapter 8: Long live the queen

‘Here are your Oran Berries dear the Drampa said the next day, why don’t you taste one to see if it’s good’. Meanwhile on the inside queen Ditto s mind was filled with rage, she had to make yet another version of poison and had not slept for two days now. Vulpix nodded and bucked in excitement to taste another tasty berry. ‘I’d like that’ she said, moving closer to eat the berry. ‘Oh wait I should pay first’ she said. The Drampa grumbled. ‘No try one first if they are bad you don’t need to pay’ Snowy smiled and happily ate the Oran Berry. Immediately she noticed something was wrong.’What is happening to me.. I don’t feel so good Mister Drampa’ .. the queen dropped her disguise and grinned. ‘Hahaha foolish girl.. I poisoned you just like your father did and now you will die like him and I will be the Pokémon with the most value!, I have been planning all this since I captured your mother in the dungeons’ Snowy gasped, not only by the realisation but also because she could not get any air. The queen was narrating their evil plans in some sort of monologue but before the queen could finish Snowy quite literally dropped dead.

In the caves meanwhile lunchtime had come, the Spoinks were happily bouncing together. For their lunch they would have some of the Pecha Berries , Snowy saved for them, she was such a sweet girl saving some of her favorite berries to hand out to her friends. While they all took a bite out of their piece of fruit together, Hardy Quirky and Hasty came to the same realization. ‘These don’t taste right, there is some weird thing with it. Hasty jumped to conclusions. ‘If these don’t taste right perhaps they are poisoned’ Hardy wanted to scoff this away but then remembered that Snowy told her a bad person wanted to harm her as his mouth fell open. ‘Oh my Arceus” we must go back this instance! The seven hopped home, Hasty and Jolly rushing ahead came home just in time to overheard a Ditto talking to vulpix on the floor. ‘And once I rid the world of Decidueye who is actually a Ditto as well, none can hold a candle against me and I shall rule this world forever. ‘ Jolly hopped up and said. ‘Hey blobbo step away from our friend’. The Ditto looked back at them. ‘She is dead anyway my job is done’ Hasty leaped towards her with tears in it’s little eyes. Oh my Arceus, you killed snowy you bastard! You will pay for this. The pig pokémon began to chase the pink blob , which fled quite scared. They might harm her.. she had no offensive moves, even if she had better IV’s she would have to transform into something. ‘She then turned and smiled as she turned into a spoink’ Now unable to catch up with her the Spoink soon fell behind.
“She is to fast Hasty said’ .. “It will be stronger than all of us. ‘I have an idea’ Hardy said’ ‘We all toss our pearls at her’ Sassy looked confused. ‘Are you trying to get us killed as well fool? If we toss our pearls we can attack anymore,.. and I doubt they heavy enough to knock her out’ Hardy nodded.. I don’t want you to hit her with the pearls, I want you to throw slightly over her.. or at least aim for the face. Soon they other Spoink realised his plan and they readied their pearls’ “You better duck or I am gonna outqueen you’ Sassy said while sloppily tossing her pearl. The queen grinned and ducked as commanded laying down on the floor’ Jolly’s pearl flew just passed her, she would be safe as long as she remained lying on the ground. A sensation suddenly hit the queen, something was wrong… why wasn’t her heart beating? What was this magic? Before the least pearl was tossed… the queen was dead her heart simply stopped beating.

And this is where we leave things for now! In the final part next week, we will see how the Spoinks will deal with the loss of Snowy and find out if there still can be a happy ever after for this group. We will also see what became of the huntsman! So my apologies for not being able to finish this as quickly as I thought I could, but my blog post would become to long otherwise! I hope you enjoyed nonetheless.
Remember I am not weird, just very pink!
Until we read again.

Snowy and the Seven Spoink (Part 1)

Fairy-type tales time my sweet little monsters! When you read this you will most likely be celebrating that you made it through another week of work. So to unwind we will retell a story that was first published in 1812. Written by the brothers Grimm, adapted by Disney in a classic we all love and requested by Raist, a loyal little monster who has been following this blog for a while now! Click on his name to go to his very own blog where he talks about some amazing geek stuff! But without further ado, today we have converted the tale of Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Today Pinkie Cherryblossom presents you: Snowy and the Seven Spoink Part 1 This one will be split into two parts because there is a lot to tell!

Chapter 1: The best value

in a realm very different than ours there lived a king named Ditto!. He was a good and noble king, who had many wives over his life.. Many Maaaaany wives! Yet none he loved so much as his second to last Ninetales. They loved playing together all the time and then one day an egg had suddenly appeared. From this egg came a little Vulpix, whose fur was white as snow, her eyes a mesmerising cobalt blue and when she would sing joyfully a aurora veil would appear dyeing any room she would appear in with beautiful lights. Because she was so different from her mother, and all the other vulpix they decided to name her Snowy. Disaster struck through when Snowy’s mother disappeared. The kings sibling Ditto, informed him of some grave news. It saw the queen get captured by a human. The king and Snowy alike were devastated by this loss. In an attempt to give Snowy a good home King Ditto remarried. He managed to find a Ninetales that looked exactly like her mother exactly like his beloved wife. Yet Snowy always knew, the new ninetales was cold and mean and did not really seem to love the king. She spent most of her time in her own room looking and admiring herself. She was never there for the king, not even when he got sick. Even the best Audino and Chansey in the land could not heal the king, until eventually he fainted. Snowy was all alone now, her stepmother shed but a single tear at the funeral.. and even that one looked fake. The queen withdrew into her quarters again.

The private quarters of the queen were very different than the rest of King Ditto’s palace, it was dark and gloomy, a cauldron bubbling in the back, a very odd somewhat drafty bookcase and stack of pillows where Ninetales slept without her husband. Yet none of these where the items the queen had come here for today. She came here for the item she always came for, the item hanging on her wall. It was an LED display, framed by red plastic. rectangular in shape. Yet the red plastic had a downward crescent shape at the top, and in the middle of its highest point a single red spike would arise. Right above the display it had two closed eyelids. Two protrusions on the either side formed what looked like arms both having a button at the end. This was the queen’s most cherished secret and prized possession as she scraped her throat and addressed it. Magic Rotom Dex on the wall, who is the most valuable pokémon of them all?! The Rotom would open its eyes and spoke. Alolan Vulpix has some great individual values, while Decidueye scores great on effort values, but none have them so well combined as you my queen! You are the best pokémon out there now that King Ditto is gone’. Ninetales saw her own picture appear on the Rotom Dex and grinned menacing.

Chapter 2: Snowy and the Huntsman

A year would pass since the death of the king and much like Ash Ketchum, Snowy did not seem to have aged a day. She was playing on the castle grounds after she was done with all her chores. She wanted to go discover new places of the castle to play in. She discovered some stairs down, it was guarded by Decidueye. An owl like pokémon that had seen many battles and was very strong through experience. He worked for her step-mother but they always good along. ‘Hi huntsman can I go play down there’ Snowy would ask cheerfully’ The Pokémon looked at her from trough red glasses, his leafed cowl would shake telling her no. He straightened his tall white body and puffed up his beige feathered wings he could use as bows , to look a bit more intimidating. ‘ No Snowy you can not, has your mother never told you? This used to be a place called the dungeons, though there were a lot of mysteries in there to explore before, we had a cave in.. just before former queen Ninetales disappeared. We suspect it was the humans! They must have set traps which destroyed those subterranean levels, and your mother told me to guard this area and not even let you in’ Snowy puffed up her cheeks and said ‘she’s not my mother’ The owl gave Snowy a headpat before winking at her. ‘But you know they say somewhere in the castle there is a palace that still leads into the dungeons, if you are really brave’ Snowy got all excited ‘Do you know where it HM?’ she said while bucking in excitement. HM was a her way of addressing the huntsman, it felt more personal that way. The huntsman laughed and said ‘I do not ..but tell you what if you are a good girl and go play outside, I will keep my EYE out for you’. Snowy nodded excited and dashed of to go play outside. The huntsman chuckled, while wondering if it had actually been a good idea to tell her about this, he hated to see her sad though she had been through so much already.

While playing outside Vulpix wandered of into the wilds, she went to her favorite spot in the woods. For some reason there was an opening in the forest where huge wooden constructions would rest. Large wooden X shapes with a wooden surface on top. To the side of each of these X’es would aos be to lower smaller wooden surfaces. HM once told me they were called “picnic tables’ She liked it because sometimes, food wood randomly appear on this spot. This time as well. A brown container lay on the ground holding some pallets that smelled like Nanab berries lay on the floor. It was labeled C-A-L-C-I-U-M. Vulpix had no idea what it was but she would eat it anyway..it smelled really good and as she ate the Calcium pallets she felt herself being more healthy and even a bit stronger then before.

The queen was ready for her ritual again, having entered her room again a wailing on the wind can be heard from her bookcase. She ignored this and went straight to the item she cherished so much, that what would confirm she was still the most valuable pokémon. ‘Magic Rotom Dex on the wall, who is the most valuable of us all?’ she said once more.
Rotom Dex awoke a bit grumpy. ‘Like I told you before your huntsman has great EV’s ..but you are…… wait…… Alolan Vulpix has gotten a fair bit of effort values and now is the strongest of you all. She outclasses you in both Individual as Effort values and…’ the rom was interrupted as the queen sent a powerful hex towards it causing it to flicker for a bit!|
‘Huntsman I need to speak to you now! I got a job for’ the queen said while storming towards the throne room.

Chapter 3: A bad day to be a swinub!

‘‘HUNTSMAN!!!!’ The queen stormed into the throneroom seeing the decidueye bow to her. ‘I have a job for you’ she hissed coldly. ‘Anything for my queen’ was the answer she got prompting a cruel smirk from her mouth. ‘You need to kill Snowy.. that brat has become an eyesore I need her gone… bring her into the woods tonight and bring me her heart so I may devour it’. The huntsman went silent , cold sweat appearing on his face. After a while he began to stammer. ‘M–m-my q-q-queen she’s s young… i am sure’ ‘I AM A FIRE TYPE with ghost moves .. fail me.. and you will die… and I will show your wife your fainted corpse’. Decidueye seemed to mostly scare of the last part. ‘Y-You wouldn’t .. please my queen’ Ninetales laughed cruelly ‘she will not mourn you after I show her… she will hate you’ ‘I…I…I shall do as you wish my queen’. With a flourish of his wings the huntsman went out standing at the drawbridge waiting for Snowy to return.

The alolan vulpix was on her way back to the castle, she wasn’t allowed to play outside at dark, well her father never allowed her too, stepmother couldn’t care less, but Snowy would honour her father’s rules. Seeing HM standing at the drawbridge she bucked a bit in joy to tell him about her adventure today. She ran towards him ‘Hi HM … I found some really tasty pellets today, they were super jummy and i feel super excited’ . The owl looked to the ground. ‘Snowy.. I … need you .. to show me where they were…. I’m….eager… to see… if there is more’. The vulpix tilted her head ‘you sound sad.. is everything alright?’ The bird shivered ‘Just do what I ask’. Snowy a bit scared by his sadness figured some pellets would cheer him up however so she ran in front of him singingly. A small little aurora veil would appear. Reaching the picnic tables again, Decidueye flew up and set on one’s ledge. ‘I am sorry Snowy… the queen has ordered you to die’ said the owl while nooking one of his arrows and pointing it at Snowy.

Tears began to brim from her eyes. ‘But I don’t wanna die.. please HM.. we are friends right… don’t do this?’ Vulpix was frozen in fear she could not go anywhere, by now the moonlight was bouncing of the huntsman giving him a very intimidating look … teared up eyes staring at her and the point of his arrow glimmering when suddenly the arrow began to shake heavily. “I …. I can’t do it, but your moth……the queen she will come after you….. I will distract her Snowy… but you have to run and never come back… leave now… run’! Decidueye shot an arrow close to her paws to scare her away. the vulpix crazed by fear dashed of crying big tears of fear and feeling betrayed, he was her friend , he just tried to kill her, but he helped her as well. Her thoughts raced through her heads.. Maybe the queen killed her father as well, that is a very scary tree, where will she go… would she die?
With this storm of thoughts while constantly moving she had no idea where she was going, the only thing she knew was it was away from the castle.
Decidueye collapsed to the ground, he would die now.. the queen would certainly kill him. His wife would know his terrible secret. He had to come up with a plan of sorts, a way to make sure the queen doesn’t find snowy, a way that she doesnt find out. He would have to find a way to trick her. Suddenly there was some rustling in the bushes. A swinub came out to greet him. ‘ Hello friend, who are you? My name is Swinub… OINK… I saw you fell of that mighty hight thing there and thought you might need help! OiNK! How about some berries OINK! I do not mind sharing mine with a new friend’. The little pig had a bit of an annoyingly high pitched voice it seemed very excited at the sight of a new pokemon though. The decidueye looked at it and sighed ‘You can help me, you are an ice type right?’
The pig jumped in excitement! ‘Oink! That is correct friend! I know I might be super effective against your grass type.. but I have no desire to fight my new best friend! OINK!’ The decidueye spread his wings and looked at the Swinub with a sad look. “I need you to give me something, I need to present my queen’

That is where we leave part one. In the next one Snowy will reach our other titular friends and we can hopefully conclude this story! What secrets do the Queen and Decidueye have, will our little heroine get her happily ever after or will the Queen’s type advantage let her regain the best IV’s and EV’s? Find out next week! Leave a like or a comment on what other Fairy-Type Tales you would like to see and remember,
I am not weird, just very pink!
Until we read again.

My Pokéstuff Wishlist

Happy weekend my little monsters! Today is saturday again, which means we can talk just about anything. Since I try to highlight just about everything about the franchise, this time we we will take a look at some delicious goodies. Stuff I’d yell ‘Shut up and take my money’ about if I had any. However with my bank account being lower than a Sunkerns base stat total for now I can only dream. I do however feel it would be nice to share that dream with you all. Given that I do not have affiliate partners to link to, all these goodies will be shared without purchase links. If you want to purchase these yourself, google picture search these or ask me for a link in the comments.

Pokemon Posters

Recently I’ve had some major struggles with my mental health, my house was decorated in a way to reflect the person people wanted me to be. Neutral cool colours, somewhat generic arts and the likes. However that is not me, I want my house to be colourful, bubbly and full of pokémon. A good and easy way to bring more pokémon into my life is through the use of posters. Like the Vaporwave Porygon poster I shared above, it looks absolutely stunning, it features my favorite colour and honours the age I am from. I can see a lot of myself in this poster, like being the oddball that kinda lives in a world of her own. It’s quirk it’s retro and a total eyecatcher! I WANT IT! Pokémon posters have some of the coolest designs you see in posters out there. Where many anime or game posters tend to be either cover art, screengrabs or the likes, many of the pokémon poster push those boundaries and speak, either by playing with colour or some other form of creativity, a great deal of them just step it up a nodge. The steel/metal poster shared below for example. It just pops to me, their outline being so much more defined than the actual pokémon, reflects how we all know them, and the neonesque outline really reflects the power that’s inside. A great piece to liven up any room!

An Alolan Vulpix Plush
I am a big plush addict, I love them so much, all my seven unicorn pluches have names I address them by when I speak to them. Most my plushies are fair prizes, cause I am pretty good at crane games and if you know what and when you do it, you can get nice stuff for little money. The only plushies I actually spend big money on is, well you guessed it Pokémon Plushies. Right now I own about 7 of them, sleeping bulbasaur and sylveon as official tomy pluches, as well as pichu , chibi jolteon and everyone’s favorite mascotte Pikachu. I also own two bootleg pikachu’s because I loved how awkward they looked. Mimkiyu and Alolan Vulpix would be next on my wishlist, but since I own so many bootleg pikachu’s already, the official one would make my cabinet look very dull. Alolan Vulpix would definitely spice up the cabinet.

Just look at how adorable it is, i’d squee every time i’d see it because alolan vulpix is just too precious. It’s variants all look quite nice and I have yet to see a really bad bootleg of it. Costing your from around €12,- Euro’s on websales it isn’t remarkably expensive to get either. The tomy version would , on european conventions cost you around €25, euros though. I still prefer to buy something like these at conventions in general just to get a scope of all angles and how the material feels, but at these prices I will start considering buying them online. This little baby also has two variants which I really like, my absolute favorite one being the vulpix in the great ball.

It makes for a great presentation piece, those big eyes just peering into your soul, with a hint of melancholy just makes you want to care for it.. and squee. Hey if i’d put it in the cabinet near my bed, the neighbours at least hear some squees of joins from that area, they might even start to think I am normal. The final one is ‘holiday’ AV, all i can really say is
SQUUUUEEEEE!

It’s kind of like little red riding hood, with fur… and fur!

Pokémon Master Trainer: The Board Game
Let’s step away from the ornamental and huggables for a bit. It’s time to address the most expensive and rare item on my wishlist.
Pokémon Masters is a classic board game where four trainers travel all across Kanto in order to capture the strongest team of pokémon and face the elite four. First one to become the champ , wins the game. The game features all the original 150 pokémon in a wonderfully broken and backstabby journey, that is a lot more fun for us grownups then it was when we were kids. If you ever felt Mario Party was a friendship wrecker you have never played Master Trainer. Stealing each others Pokémon or helping you lose against the elite four has never been more fun. If you like messing with your friends over a perfectly balanced and streamlined game like me, this game can be a world of fun. Unfortunately the original, set in Kanto sells for some ridiculous prices online from in between €80 and €350 for a complete set in at least passable qualities. There are version of Jotho (and Hoehn as well I believe) that are much cheaper, however they have been streamlined in terms of RNG and game breaking items, but where is the fun in that. Though truthfully if I ever see one of those cheaply I would probably still pick them up.

One of the most evil board games i ever played…and I love it.

The Jigglypuff LED Light

As I can’t go to long with wishing for something pink it is time we brought up this little guy.
I have only recently figured out about it’s existence encountering it at dutch animecon in Rotterdam in the middle of June. However a quick price search resulted in me finding out it was fairly overpriced. Marketed there for about € 35 or even 40 euros, it was about €14 to €20 euros more expensive than you’d need to pay for it. So I had to let it slip my grasp. It’s a fairly common item and it’s not that hard to see why. It’s friggin cute, sure the eyes look a bit painted on but it’s a lamp,you won’t notice it that much when it’s on. Even if you do… who can say no to that face! The little puffball.. ‘yes you are a good little light! Yes you are!’ Sorry I can really get carried away fangirling over items like these. Off all the items on my list this will most likely be the first to purchase , after all when it’s out there nice and glowy I am sure it will give ,anyone who adopts this little fellow, a good night’s sleep.

Can’t you just here it play the Jigglypuff song?

The Pikachu alarm clock
Having made a nice bridge we have come to the last item of this post, given that I still have a folder filled with items, somewhere in the future there will be a follow up.
When Jigglypuff sends us asleep we need someone to jolt us awake. That task of course comes down to Pikachu. This item flew onto my radar when I encountered it at a discount store, available to me for only seven euro it raised my suspicions, Unfortunately those proved correct having one ear of the Pikachu missing. I could not look by that fault and my crafting level is too low to mend such things creatively. Having only a tiny display is good for me, because I am a panic peeker, when I can’t sleep I stare at the clock and worry about all the sleep I am losing, which..is a lot. A clock like this will help me to relax a little bit more.
The imagery of a pokémon sleeping is nice and Pikachu can emit a night dim little nightlight if you so chose. The clock comes in bulbasaur and squirtle variations as well, but those tend to be quite a bit more expensive. Pikachu ‘clock’s in’ (heh i made a pun) at €25,- while the starter bros are closer to €40 euros , squirtle costing just a few bucks more than the best starter. Just don’t toss the pokéball in your dreams, you’ll be late.

Next time we will look at some more amazing plushies and some figurines, maybe even a mug or two! Though most people claim that pokemon do not exist, we can still fill our houses with them, and stuff about them. That makes them real enough already for me.
Let me know what Pokémon item you really want to get.
Gotta Wish some more… until then stay pink!