Ash's Last Dance

An Old Friend?

Clemont's POV

It was when I had finished changing into my racing gear and gotten all set that I decided that I wasn't going to do this. While I didn't want to wuss out of something as simple as a Rhyhorn race, the fact was much more deep-seated for me.

When I was around ten years old, I would go over to a friend's house to hang out. Unfortunately, something we ended up doing a lot was Rhyhorn racing. I hated Rhyhorns from the start, maybe because I was very fond of Electric Pokémon, and Rhyhorn didn't exactly mesh well with them.

Well, whatever my preconceptions were, they only became justified as I was absolutely atrocious at Rhyhorn racing. I couldn't even count the times I had fallen off and gotten some nasty bruise or scratch. That would usually be the best way to get out of the situation. Once I got hurt, we would stop and go back inside. Eventually, we stopped riding the Rhyhorns since my friend figured out that I was scared of them, but the mental scars had already set in.

While this seems very trivial to anyone else, Rhyhorns were something that I was just not going to deal with again. My family and I ended up moving to Lumiose City and taking over for the Gym Leader who had retired, taking me away from the Rhyhorns for good. However, I did end up losing all of my friends, and I hadn't been great at making any new ones since either.

That's what made my short time with Ash and Dawn so special. It had been a long time since I was just able to have fun and relax with someone who wasn't Bonnie. Although, trying to relax while Bonnie was around was probably harder than coding a robot. It seemed like I was at the butt of every one of her jokes.

I quickly shook out of my thoughts as Ash walked in, also fully geared up.

"You ready to go, Clemont? The race starts in 10 minutes," he said as he walked over to where I was sitting.

"Um, r-right. So I've got to tell you something really funny that happened-" I started but was cut off by Bonnie, who walked in.

"Come on, Clemont! You're gonna be late!" she chided as she grabbed my arm. I knew full well what she was going to do, and unfortunately, I couldn't stop it.

"Hey! What are you doing in the men's changing room, Bonnie?!" I yelled, trying to make her go away.

"There's literally no one here but you! Everyone else is outside!" she yelled while rolling her eyes.

I groaned as I was forcibly dragged outside, and my chance at escaping slipped away. Guess there was no way of getting out of this now.

I walked over to where the riders were, and several had begun to start getting on their respective Rhyhorns. I spotted Max getting ready to hop on Rhyhorn 13 and saw Dawn and May in the front row stands.

I gulped nervously as I walked over to the Rhyhorn with the same number as my shirt, 19. Ash was behind me; he was number 21.

Once I was near the Rhyhorn, I nervously approached it, trying not to piss it off. Luckily, I still remembered how to somewhat properly mount one and managed to get on without too much trouble.

After everyone was on their mounts and ready to go, one of the race officials walked over to the side with their starting pistol in the air. After a tense moment, the 'bang' of the pistol went off, and all the Rhyhorns lurched forward, already knowing what was to be done.

Now, there was apparently some way you were supposed to steer your Rhyhorns and ways to make them run faster, but I couldn't care less. It was almost like PTSD had set in, and the only thing I could focus on was not falling off.

Fortunately for me, my Rhyhorn seemed to know what to do, and I ended up being tied for 4th place. The girl riding next to me gave me a death stare and yelled something to her Rhyhorn, and it slowly started to pull ahead.

"Come on, Rhyhorn!" I yelled, trying to make my mount keep up. It grunted before leaping into the air and landing with a 'thud' and caused a tremor to burst out. The Rhyhorn in front of us ended up losing its footing and tumbled forward, knocking it out of the race.

I cheered and patted the Rhyhorn on the head. "Nice job, Rhyhorn!"

We had started to pull up to the last turn of the race, and I was in 3rd place. I took a quick look behind me and saw that Ash and Max were currently in a grind to see who would come 4th.

Looking back forward, the other two racers, who seemed to be pretty good at this, had crossed the finishing line.

Cheers erupted from the crowd, and a replay showed that rider 12 had crossed first, winning the race. I soon made it across as well and got off my ride after giving the Rhyhorn a pat on the head. Ash and Max soon got off their mounts and walked over to me.

"HAHA, Ash! I beat you!" Max boasted, smiling like a madman.

Ash just shook his head with a chuckle before looking at me. "Nice job out there, Clemont!" he said, giving me a pat on the shoulder. "I was worried after Bonnie told me that you were scared of Rhyhorns."

I smacked my face and groaned. "Right..."

"Well, hurry up, Clemont! Go get your trophy," Max chided, pushing me towards the stage.

"Wait, what tro-" I asked before looking at the podium that had been set up. I walked up and stood at the 3rd place spot before someone fancy walked over and handed me a trophy. I looked into the crowd and saw Dawn, May, and Bonnie cheering along with the rest of the crowd. For some reason, this was a decently popular thing.

As I walked back down the stage, I looked at the trophy, which seemed to be made out of some kind of metal that I surprisingly couldn't recognize.

Lumiose City 87th Annual Rhyhorn Race

3rd Place

Clemont Citron

I opened my eyes in shock that the trophy had my name on it but was quickly pushed out of my thoughts when I accidentally ran into someone.

"O-Oh, my bad," I apologized, looking up at the person I had run into.

"No prob-, Clemont?!"

My eyes shot up, and I ended up looking at a honey blonde girl who was around my height.

After I took a moment to look at the person in front of me, my eyes widened in surprise.

"Serena?!"

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A/N: Yo I'm back with another update. Hopefully I'll be able to update soon. 1150 words cyaaaaa.