My Shiny Story :)
Spoiler:

A Shiny heart.
Shinies, Shinies, Shinies. Ember was sick of hearing about Shinies. Life was not easy for the normal coloured Ponyta. His Mother and Father were both shiny, his elder brother was shiny, even his two younger sisters were shiny. Somehow the shiny gene had not emerged in Ember. He tried his hardest to heat his flame as hot as it could go, but he simply could not achieve that beautiful pure blue flame that this parents and siblings exuded.

The herd followed his father and mother without question. Their blue flame somehow signified leadership, to the other Rapidashes. Everyone looked with envy at the family of Shinies. Well, envy and a little bit of pity for Ember, the Ponyta who didn’t shine.

His parents told him that they loved him as much as their other children, but Ember always noticed that they always seemed much prouder of their children with the blue flame. His Brother and sisters, as siblings tend to do, liked to tease Ember about his orange flame. Ember smiled and laughed, not wanting to let the others see how much their teasing hurt.

One day while the family was eating, his brother looked up at their dad and said, “Dad, are you sure that Ember is even a part of this family?”

Ember did not hear the answer. His eyes full of tears, he ran from the patch of grass they were grazing on and simply ran and ran. He was sick of his perfect shiny family, with their perfect blue flames. He was going live by himself and start a new herd. A herd with no shinies allowed.

He spent an hour or two stomping around a water hole that his family sometimes used, letting his anger get back under control. He knew that he would have to go back and face his family. This wasn’t the first time he had run away from the herd. His father would eventually find him and convince him to come home.

“Why isn’t dad here yet?” Ember wondered. He never leaves me alone this long. “Perhaps it is time to go back.” Ember made his way back to the herd.

As he approached the herd area, he heard the roar of engines and shouts of men. There was a smell of fear in the air, and the cries of many Rapidash and Ponyta calling for help. He sped into the place where he and his family ate and saw his parents and sibling all caged with strange men at the gates laughing and cheering.

Ember saw his family in trouble and raced forward to find a way to help. He didn’t make it far into the clearing before he felt a dart hit him in the rump. The dart’s sedative sent him to sleep, and all he heard as he went under was one of the men saying, “That was a waste of a dart. We have shinies here, no-one is going to want a plain Ponyta like that. Cut it loose.”

Hours passed in a daze until Ember was awoken by someone shaking his shoulder. Ember opened his eyes and saw a human leaning over him. In a panic the Ponyta tried to run away, but the effects of the sedative were still holding him still.

“Relax, Ponyta”, the human said, “I am not here to hurt you. My name is John. I am hunting the Poachers who were here. Do you know where they went?”

Ember looked into the eyes of the man and saw a kindness there that was definitely unlike the men who had taken his family. He relaxed a little and said “My name is Ember”.

The Man looked at him and said, “I’m sorry I don’t speak Ponyta, but please eat this berry. It will help you move again.”

Ember ate the berry offered and found his paralysis gone. He sprang to his feet and ran to where he had seen his family captured. There were clear tyre tracks leading away. Looking back at John, he called out, “Over here John!” The human didn’t seem to understand him again. It was strange that Ember could understand the human, but the human couldn’t understand him.

John came to where Ember had called and saw the tyre tracks. “Good work, Ponyta! Hmm… I need to call you something better than Ponyta. I Think I’ll name you Quicksilver.” Ember gave the human a strange look. He already had a perfectly good name, but he accepted that this human was a bit thick and didn’t even understand Ponyta language, so he accepted the nickname in good humour.

John and Ember followed the tyre tracks for a long time. Along the way Ember learned about John, who was married and worked in the National Guard. Ember also learned that John could understand basic sign language, and started using head tosses, and rearing up to establish a basic communication with the human.

Eventually they came upon a camp. Ember could smell his family and knew that were all very afraid. The evil humans must be in this camp, keeping his family captive. John held up a hand to shush him so Ember stayed low and hid behind some rocks while the human pulled out a radio to call for help.

As John brought the radio up to speak into it, a leaf suddenly flew out of nowhere and sliced through the radio’s antenna. A Bellsprout followed by one two evil looking humans followed the Bellsprout.

“Looks like someone is trying to track us down and call for help, Jim” said the first larger poacher.

“Seems only fair we teach him to mind his own business, Bob” said the second poacher.

“Flora, stun that guy”, the first poacher called out.

The Bellsprout blew out a huge cloud of spores that John tried desperately not to breathe in. Eventually running out of breath the human stiffened up unable to move.

Ember knew that John was in trouble and jumped over the rocks at the two evil men approaching him. With a quick ember attack he put the Bellsprout out of action. “I might not be shiny, but I’m still better than a grass type”, he said, a little smugly.

The two poachers approached Ember trying to get to either side of the Ponyta. Ember laughed with joy as they tried to capture him. Without their dart guns the two poachers were led on a merry chase trying to keep up with him. A nice solid kick to the rump of one of the Poachers sent him down, while a ringing headbutt to the other one knocked him senseless.

Going back to John, he saw that the human was trying to reach into one of his pockets. Ember reached down and opened the pocket with his mouth and saw one of the berries that John had given him earlier. Moving the Berry to where John could easily eat it, he soon had the human on his feet.

John tied the Poachers up and they moved into the campsite.

Ember let out a whinny and ran to the cages that held his Mother and Father. The Rapidashes cried out in joy to see Ember, but then they started to cry out in fear as they saw John move towards them.

“It’s OK Mum and Dad, this is John, he is a nice human, although he is a bit too stupid to understand our language.” His parents settled down and John unlocked the cages.

The two magnificent shiny Rapidashes, with their 3 shiny Ponyta children danced with joy with Ember as they reclaimed there freedom. John watched them and smiled at the joy that.

Settling down Ember’s father walked over to John and lowered his head to allow the human to stroke his mane.

John looked at the magnificent shiny beast and made a request. “Sire Rapidash. As a member of the National Guard it is my duty to protect all Pokémon in this area, and I would ask a boon of you. I am currently without a Pokémon partner, and if you would allow it, I would love to partner with one of your beautiful shiny children.”

Ember listened in disbelief. After they had worked together to save his family this human was going to pick one of his siblings, simply because they had blue flame. He was disgusted as he watched his father nod his head in agreement, and his brother and sisters started frolicking blowing their beautiful blue flames as high as they could, hoping to make the human pick them for this honour.

John didn’t even notice his brother and sisters as he walked straight to Ember.

“Stupid human, I’m not shiny”, Ember said as John laid his hand on the Ponyta’s head.

“I choose you Quicksilver. These others might have beautiful shiny coats, but I prefer you and your shiny heart.”