Here, it's simple. There's no authority on what's a move and what's not. A move is just whatever you can consistently pull off in a battle, and there's no biological or even legal limit to four. It's just that about four per pokemon, on a standard league team of six, gets to the limit of what a trainer can remember when strategizing. I can do plenty more than four things, but I don't expect Fluttershy to give me that much detailed direction mid fight, especially when we haven't even come up with a nice shorthand name for every last move.

But then, in a lot of other universes, it seems so rigid! Some worlds' moves really do seem like they're externally standardized, and the pokemon do them exactly the same way each time... I've even heard of some universes where learning some new technique means you're not allowed to use an older one anymore! If I try to hit someone with an exploding fireball, is that the same move as if I intentionally "miss" with it and explode the fireball into their back? To me, that's just a clever variation that takes one extra word at most for Fluttershy to suggest it to me, which is a low mental load for my trainer and I'd probably call it the same move, but in some universes that might be a full 50% of what I'm allowed to do in a battle. I mean, I'm sure it works fine if that's the format you're used to in your local league, but also I'm glad I live here and not there.

I know there's more pressing matters these days, but I've been thinking. I mean, when we're just here in a city and not doing many battles, thinking just kind of happens because I'm not busy fighting anyone.

I feel like I've gotten pretty good at speaking like a human, enough to be understood most of the time anyway (though really, fuck the letter P. and F too while we're at it). I don't remember if I mentioned before, but I don't want to actually be a human. I do know what it's like to really wish on that level to be something else, I am a trans girl after all – thankfully gender differences in delphoxes are minimal, so it's not too bad most of the time – and when I think about what it might be like to be a human girl, traveling the region and directing a pokemon team of my own, it just doesn't feel the same.

Except then I think, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be a pony? Not a human though. And then I think after that, as I'm thinking myself in circles, would I still think that sounds good if not for meeting Fluttershy? I've never wished to be a different species of pokemon before. Is it actually the pony-ness that's appealing, or is it just the ability to remain floofy and adorable while also getting to speak and train a team and... well, the ability to be treated as a person who can do things outside the context of battle. Fluttershy has had a few issues herself of course, being mistaken for a pokemon, but doesn't the fact that her problems come from that just go to show that pokemon are treated like second-class citizens?

Except – and you can really tell my train of thought left the tracks behind long ago – it's kind of true that I basically only know battle and not how to do the rest of a human or pony life? I'm very good at fighting. But Fluttershy doesn't do battle herself, and she's still so cool and I like her so much and want to be able to be like her, she's so... so kind, and soft, and yet still so capable, even formidable in her own ways.

Which is all just a long-winded way of saying, I guess, do you think maybe I took on this human language thing for the wrong reasons? Am I doing this because it's actually useful to me, or just because it helps me emulate Fluttershy? Or because I think it will make her like me more, or see me differently? She already likes me, obviously, values me on the team, we're friends outside of battle and all that, I mean... I don't know what I mean. Is that enough, is that correct? I think, maybe it's

Arden, I'm pretty sure that's just called a bar. There are probably lots of them in Anistar City.

She is! She has the power of psychic wizardry and the power of hands!

What, like it's hard? I have both of those, and the power of fire.

You're both powerful wizards to me. The whole team is, honestly. You're the ones who actually battle and win, and all I do is talk and make plans that usually don't even go as planned.

That's important too! None of us would be able to work together anywhere near as well as we do without you. I would... well, if I'd been in the wild anyway, I wouldn't have found a team at all without meeting you. I'd have tried to fight every challenger alone, and probably win a lot because I'm just that good, but even I have some weaknesses. But we win battles a whole lot more because you know who should fight what and when, you know? And that's valuable.

Aww, thanks, Arden! There was a saying in Equestria, actually. "Friendship is magic." It's about... well, what you described. Being better together. Also literal magic sometimes, but that's more just a Twilight thing. Friendship has always been magic even long before her studies with the Princess.

Friendship...

Really? I hadn't heard of that, but if they can do it, I suppose maybe it's possible. I'm not very cat-shaped, but I'm closer to it than a lot of pokemon at least.

[An audio recording is attached. It contains mostly unintelligible fox noises, with maybe a few hints of almost-words mixed in. It's impossible to tell what the intended sentence was.]

Is that really so much to ask? At least I have Fluttershy to talk to, and that's more than most pokemon ever get, but it still feels bad that I can't make myself comprehensible to just, regular people, other trainers we battle, anyone.

And this girl with a skitty ear headband and a fake tail comes over to us, looks at me rather than Fluttershy, and is like "hey, nice delphox cosplay! by the way, I've never seen a ponyta like that before, where'd you get it?"

Naturally, Fluttershy speaks up, introduces herself, the girl kind of freaks out because that's a ponyta talking in human language, but she explains that she's a Faller and I'm a delphox. But I can't just pass up an opportunity to have some fun, so I turn to her and say something – in a way humans can't understand, mind you – and Fluttershy relays it to the human girl.

She catches onto the idea right away and perfectly delivers, "Arden would like me to pass on that she thinks your human disguise is very nice too and you did a great job on it. It's always nice when two dittos happen to meet in the wild, isn't it?"