The Review Must Go On
I sat on my chair, my desk before me. On the desk sat my newly purchased laptop, fresh and clean for college. College was where I was, sitting in a college dorm room.
HUM 101 essay: done.
MATH 111 homework: done.
CHEM homework: done.
Amazing, isn't it? I actually have free time. And lots of it.
During this time, Kongregate would be my best friend. I had just beat Level Up, and now I was playing Bloons Super Monkey 2. Level 12. 69 points to level up. Too bad Bloons Super Monkey 2 didn't have any achievements. You think it would, being a updated sequel by Ninja Kiwi.
I sighed. The game was getting boring. I looked at my digital clock radio. 8:30 P.M. I considered playing that game the college newspaper did a story on. . .Rouge Legacy. . .but I had already played that for a while.
I looked around my room. It was empty besides me. My roommate's desk and bed lay empty, and the room was quiet. He had left to go home for the weekend, leaving me alone for the night and day and night.
I'm shy. No one knows that I read and write Fanfiction, let alone about Pokemon, or worse, multicolored ponies. . .
And so, as I opened up a new tab and went to Fanfiction, those thoughts mingled in my mind, and I remembered that project FictionaryMan03895 and I worked on.
I smiled. Pokemon Reenacted by Ponies by jjkmovies. Wasn't that a fun animation. Short, sweet, funny, and accurate. I even considered going over to YouTube and giving it another watch. I easily could, I was alone in the room. Wasn't I the Closet Brony. . .
Well, maybe that's why I liked Keldeo so much.
It was at that point that I remembered something. A story. . .a suggestion. . .but by whom? What was it called?
I quickly dived into my PM Inbox, searching for something without a single clue. Man, was that Inbox full. It needs some kind of auto delete time feature, just like the Doc Manager! Eventually I gave up and opened up to Gmail. Maybe it was in the Email Archives? Yes! I found it! Here it is:
You have received a private message from:
Name: loremaster965
Profile:
Reply link:
-
Subject: Keldo the crittic
sorry about the last one i asked you to reveiw but can you review Fluttershy,
the Pokémon Whisperer by pete the rock
Messaging Service
So. . .that's what it was called. With a little help from Google, I jumped to the story.
Disclaimer: No ownership of Pokémon or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Summary: A spell from a mysterious book sends Fluttershy to the Pokémon World but that's not the only problem. Rated for mild violence. Shipping: PonyShyShipper
Fluttershy, the Pokémon Whisperer
Chapter 1: A Little Booking Problem
One reading later. . .
. . .
Wow. . .
I mean, this story. . .
This was up before Equestria Girls was a thing! I mean, human transformation was handled just as well in this story as it was in that movie made by Hasbro!
And the characters, all good, all very good.
But still, using the Elements of Harmony on Team Rocket! Kind of overkill!
And Fluttershy, what a choice, her love of animals translates into a love of Pokemon.
Wow, that was new. . .it was. . .good job Pete the Rock. Good job. . .
Wow. . .I felt so different as I read that. I felt. . .something.
I sat in front of my laptop, deep in thought.
"No," I thought, "I'm in college now, I won't have enough time to keep this up. 'Zorua Reviews' can be done quickly. 'The Angry Rated M Clone' is rarely done. I have a long term movie for Keldeo the Critic in the works. I had him go into the G-Man door at the end of Season One. I put him on a bus. The Colt Pokemon is on a reviewing Hiatus until AuraWielder's 'Conquering the Dark' is done, and that's it."
I nodded to myself as if to make it final. . .and yet. . .something didn't seem right. . .
I soon myself Googleing Keldeo the Critic, and soon I was back at Chapter One: Purple Flowers and Chocolate Cake by Toadettegirl2012.
It's me! Keldeo The Critic! I review Pokemon FanFiction when I'm not training with the other Swords of Justice!
I smile, imagining Keldeo standing in the Sword's of Justice's meeting place, cool water surrounding the rock he stood on as he smiled happily while saying his tagline.
Soon I found myself skipping to Chapter 54: A Scar by Toadettegril2012.
Yeah. . .Toadettegril2012. . .she ruled my whole Negaishipping World. Whenever I wanted to see some romance between Iris and Ash, she was the first author I went to. She wrote "Sick With No Cure", "New Year Bash", "Don't you Remember?", and "The Easter Egg Hunt". They were all so awesome. Plus, Toadettergirl was a visionary. She had the humans understand their Pokémon. It made no sense in cannon and wasn't explained, but the destruction of the language barrier made so many touching, funny, and heartfelt scenes possible. It also helped the plot to flow so amazingly.
"So what are you waiting for?" a voice said.
I turned around, my heart pounding in fright. My eyes focused on the source of the voice. There, sitting on my roommate's bed, with his legs folded beneath him, was Keldeo.
"Hmm?" Keldeo said with a smile, cocking his head at me.
I stare at him breathlessly, with my mouth hanging open in disbelief. Keldeo was in my college dorm room, sitting on my roommate's bed, looking very comfortable as he sat nestled on top of the dark blue blanket.
"You know it's just a matter of time," Keldeo said.
I just stare at him, pretty much waiting for him to disappear. When he just sat there, looking at me, I finally found my voice. "
You're not real," I said "My imagination is just going a little too far. Either that or I'm dreaming."
"Maybe," Keldeo said with a shrug, "Or maybe it's like what the Nostalgia Critic once said."
I blinked, "What do you mean? What did he say?"
Keldeo smiled widely, "How a character can become so real that they cease being a character. They become ingrained in your mind, and you can't get rid of them no matter how hard you try." Keldeo leaned towards where I sat, sticking his neck out towards me, and he said, "Even to the point where they take on a life of their own."
I blinked, then I shook my head, "No. You're just the part of me who misses having all the time in world to just have fun."
Keldeo chuckled, "Oh, so now I'm the Summer Vacation Pokemon. Wow."
I sighed and said, "Look, Keldeo. I made a choice. I said I was going to put Keldeo the Critic on Hiatus until next Summer for a Conquering the Dark review movie. I can't do anymore Keldeo the Critic until next Summer."
"Why? What's stopping you?" Keldeo asked.
"Keldeo, college is like your training with the Swords of Justice and learning Secret Sword. I have to focus on it. I can't shirk my work to write Fanfic reviews," I explained. . .to an Anime character that was sitting in my dorm room.
Keldeo became serious, "This isn't shirking work to goof off. This is taking your free time to have a little 'Me' time, something everyone needs to balance out a life of hard work. And not just any old 'Me' time. It's a 'Me' time that adds to the Fanfiction community, and maybe even the entire internet Pokemon fan base as well. We express our love for good Fanfics, our disappointment in the bad, and make people laugh along the way." Keldeo extended a hoof, and pointed it right at me. I couldn't help but stare into the hole beneath his hoof, wondering where his Hydro Pump came from. "I know you still have a hunger to do things like this," he said to me.
I looked back at the laptop screen, "... You went through the G-Man door, you're gone until your movie. . ."
"Listen to yourself!"
I turned around fast at the harshness in Keldeo's voice. Keldeo crawled on his knees to the edge of the bed and unfolded his front legs. His front hooves hit the carpet, and he pulled the rest of his body off of the bed. Now Keldeo was standing in the middle of my dorm room, giving me a frustrated look.
"You got so scared of the challenge college presented that you convinced yourself that you needed to make your mind as cold as Coballion's Steel heart. And even he's not as cold as those Pokedex programmers thought he was."
I looked Keldeo up and down, from hooves to curved horn, thinking about what Keldeo was trying to tell me right then.
"Remember?" Keldeo said, "Every single time you thought we went to far with the critique and overstepped our boundaries, we either went back and fixed it, or pressed on and made it right. But the thing is, those reviews didn't take up all of your time. All we needed was a little time to think, a little time to focus, and a little effort. But you had high school graduation, college visits, placement tests, games on Steam, other Fanfics, YouTube videos, your own life to live."
Keldeo approached me. I suddenly felt afraid. This was a Legendary Pokemon after all. I was sitting in a corner with a window nearby. I couldn't escape that way, I was on the fifth floor. Keldeo was of fair size. As I sat down in my chair, Keldeo stood eye to eye with me. I'd probably be a few inches taller than him if I were standing.
Keldeo gestured to my laptop and said, "We kept making 3 chapter reviews almost every week. Face it, Matthais. The problem is that we made them too big and too often."
I gulped and gathered up my courage. I looked Keldeo right in the eye and said, "I'm waiting for Conquering the Dark.'"
Keldeo actually smirked at me. "Yeah?" he said, and he leaned in close to me. His chubby round snout was touching my nose, "Then why don't you just make me go away?"
Keldeo and I stared at each other in silence. I'm sure a tense five minutes passed before I managed to come up with something to say.
"How could I make you go away. . ." I whispered, "You're responsible for the greatest Pokemon movie ever made. . ."
Then, I hugged him.
I threw my arms around his blue furry collar, the side of my head resting against my favorite Pokémon's cheek. Oh, how I wished Keldeo was catchable in Black 2 instead of only available in a limited time event.
Do you know why I like Keldeo so much? Because I saw myself in him. Legitimately. He was young, he could be clever when he tried, he wanted to be strong, he was confident in himself, he wanted to have fun, and he wanted to make others proud. And yet, unlike other Legendary Pokemon, he could be afraid, he feared failure, and there were times when he had to accept defeat. What's more, Keldeo was always positive and optimistic, and yet he wasn't an airhead. He could get upset, he could express his disapproval on something, he could feel many emotions, and he cared about others. Also, since he was a Sword of Justice, he always wanted good to win over bad. What's more, his Resolute Form showed the incredible potential he has within him. I connected with this brave, honorable Pokemon so much, and the fact that such a wonderful character who was so strong, true, good, and brave could take the shape of a pony of all things just captivated me so much.
I like Lucario and Zoroark because of their power, personality, and character.
But Keldeo's strength, attitude, spirit, determination, and heart outshines them greatly.
As I hugged the Colt Pokemon, I soon felt moisture on the side of my head. So. . .we were both crying now.
I'm not sure how long we stayed like that, with my arms around Keldeo as he nuzzled me, but eventually we knew we had more pressing matters to attend to, so I let him go and Keldeo sat on his haunches to look at me.
"You've already been doing other ideas," Keldeo said nervously, shifting from hoof to hoof awkwardly.
I suddenly felt nervous itches all over me. "Well, those were quick and rare and easy to do," I said as I looked down and scratched my back.
"Maybe you just don't want to give up Spyro and Friends and The Shadow of Delilah. . .?" Keldeo suggested.
My head shot up to look at Keldeo.
Keldeo smiled, realizing that he touched a nerve, "You're clearly stumped on your LPS Movie. Zorua has been going crazy wondering where Sunil sent the villains. And as for The Legend of Spyro and Friends, well. . . we already know what that was this whole time. What Spyro was this whole time. You pretty much admitted it when you said that you planned on alternating Seasons of Spyro and Friends with seasons of Keldeo and the Swords of Justice. Once again, a character you really like is hard to get away from. You dedicated so much time to our show. Making sure there was a new review every week, and sometimes the reviews were 2 or 3 chapters long! Maybe you didn't need to stop altogether, maybe you just needed to space them out. Just responsibly use your spare and piece together something new. Did that ever come into your mind?"
"No. . .it didn't. . ." I thought to myself, looking down at the carpet in deep thought. Could this work?
My head was lifted up by Keldeo's right hoof. We were now almost as close as we were when Keldeo challenged me to make him go away. Keldeo and I were looking at each other eye to eye once again. Keldeo put all the seriousness he had learned from Coballion to good use as he spoke to me.
"I'll tell you what. If you answer this honestly, I'll either go away until the Summer, or stop by here whenever we have the time. Tell me, right now, without any hint of distrust: Do you want to make Season 2? Do you have that same passion you had before? That passion for comedy, Fanfiction and reviewing? Do you honestly want me to come back?"
I looked into Keldeo's dark blue eyes. I could see the determination and strength which were tempered by innocence. Everything about this Pokemon was just so incredible.
"Yes," I said in answer to his question, making sure to sound as absolute and certain in my decision as possible.
Keldeo had such a big happy smile that I thought he might burst out of joy. He laughed and did a backflip, his horn almost touching the ceiling. "Then what are we waiting for?!" he said as he walked backwards and jumped back onto my roommate's bed, making himself comfortable. "We have work to do," he said, and he pointed to my bed, "Make yourself comfortable."
I smiled and walked over to my bed, grabbing a package of 2 peanut butter granola bars from the top of the nearby minifridge. I sat down on the side of the bed and looked over at Keldeo. Somehow, this didn't seem right.
"Keldeo," I said.
Keldeo blinked at me as his light blue tail swung back and forth, hanging off the side of the bed.
I smiled and patted the empty space on the bed to the left of me.
Keldeo continued to stare in confusion, but then he got and happily jumped onto my bed. I sat crosslegged near the headboard while Keldeo sat near the footboard. He looked so happy!
We stared at each other while smiling awkwardly for a minute, then I said, "Well, how about some ground rules?"
"Okay," Keldeo said with a nod.
"One to two reviews a month, tops," I said.
"Eh. . ." Keldeo said slowly, mulling it over in his head.
"Maybe every other week we can do an editorial on an author or something from the Anime or games," I said as I pulled open the packaging of the granola bars, "I'm still in college and I'm not going to have as much free time as you think, so I need to pace myself with these reviews. Think of it this way, the well of reviewable Fanfics won't run dry."
I took one of the bars out and held it our to Keldeo. He sighed and said, "So be it." Keldeo grabbed the bar with his mouth and munched on it. "Mm, mm, delicious! Anyway, here's rule two, no more word per chapter limits."
"What?" I said in confusion.
"I want to review for as long as I want," Keldeo said, holding his head up high.
"Do you want to review a 5 chapter story in one shot?" I asked in concern.
"No," Keldeo said as if it were obvious, "But having to publish reviews and parts and create all those commercials and dramatic skits and comedy skits just adds more work to it and requires too much time. And besides, if you publish the review all at once, then that means you can take your time putting the review together and editing it at your leisure without having to worry about keeping the readers waiting."
I nodded in understanding, "Yeah, you're right about that." I took a bite out of my granola bar.
"And also," Keldeo said with a sheepish smile, "Um. . .two things actually. First, let's put the G-Man imitations to rest after this, cause I don't like doing them, cause I'm just not like that at all. And Second, we have to review a certain. . .something. . .DragonNiro wrote."
I nodded, "I know what you're referring to, but since we technically reviewed it already, I think we should make a deal on your two requests," I said with a smile.
"Oh?" Keldeo said.
A finished off my granola bar and said, "We put Keldeo the Critic on both Fanfiction and on Blogger."
Keldeo blinked, and he stared at the white painted cinder block wall in thought. Then he turned back and said, "Okay, if you want. I guess it wouldn't hurt."
"Reviews of any kind are blog material," I explained.
Keldeo nodded, "Very true."
"Okay then," I said, "One last condition."
"Yeeaaah?" Keldeo said.
I crawled across the bed and moved right behind Keldeo. Making sure not to lean on his tail, and reached over and picked up my laptop. I quickly clicked back to Fluttershy, the Pokemon Whisperer.
"This has to be the first review," I said, showing the story to Keldeo.
Keldeo cocked his head at the story, "Why?"
"This is the Fanfic that got me thinking about you, what with that Pokemon Reenacted By Ponies video," I said with a chuckled. Keldeo chuckled a bit as well. "It was an old suggestion too. All the way back on August 1st. It helped me consider the idea of actually doing this. I feel like I owe it."
I could tell by the look in Keldeo's eyes that he understood. He nodded and took out his tablet from his thick red mane. Before long he had the Fanfic bookmarked. "Done," he said as he put the tablet back.
I nodded back, "All right then. What's next?"
Keldeo smiled that smile of his. That smile that showed that he had everything under control, that he was ready for action, that everything was going alright. "I think you know what's next," he said, and he gave a wink.
Keldeo nuzzled me with his little round snout, and then stepped off of the bed.
I looked at the Fanfic on my laptop screen.
"I'll see you later, Matthais. . ."
I turned towards the voice.
Keldeo was gone.
I stared at the spot where Keldeo once stood for what felt like a long time. Then I regained my senses and went straight to work. I returned to my desk with my laptop and threw the granola bar wrapper in the garbage. I went to the Doc Manager and began to type:
A Keldeo stepped out of the G-Man door to watch the battle in person, he was ambushed by "Zoroarks". . .
The door of white light opened up in time and space. Keldeo stepped out of it, smiling, excited about what he was going to see. Up ahead, he could see Dash Ketchum, ready to battle with her Pikabloom. Keldeo began to walk towards the battle site, knowing not to get too close, lest he be seen.
"Zoroark. . "
Keldeo turned in surprise to a large black Changeling with a thick red mane and tail. Keldeo smiled in what looked like amusement.
"Zoroark. . ."
Keldeo turned again to see another one of the creatures. He turned again, and saw another, and another, and another, and another.
"Zoroark. . .Zoroark. . .Zoroark. . ."
Keldeo was surrounded by the Changeling/Zoroarks. He frowned and said:
"We'll see about that!"
FLASH!
Keldeo stood tall in Resolute Form, and the attackers all lay unconscious around him. The door of light slid open in front of him, and Keldeo entered it without hesitation. . .
Keldeo found himself standing in cool shallow water with a hard rock river bed. As the door slid closed behind him, Keldeo took a deep breath as he returned to his normal form. Keldeo looked over at the rock platform sticking up out of the river. He smiled as he walked over to it and jumped up onto it.
There was only one thing left for Keldeo to say:
"I'm Keldeo the Critic, and I'm back to reviewing Pokemon Fanfiction."
THE END
Performed by Keldeo of the Swords of Justice
Credits
Nostalgia Critic- The Review Must Go On
Kongregate
Bloons Super Monkey 2- Ninja Kiwi
Level Up- Titch
Rouge Legacy- Cellar Door Games
Pokemon Reenacted by Ponies by jjkmovies
Equestria Girls- Hasbro
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic- Hasbro
Conquering the Dark by AuraWielder
Ryan the Reviewer by FictionaryMan03895
Fluttershy, the Pokemon Whisperer by Pete the Rock
Half-Life- Valve
Special Thanks
YouTube
Toadettegirl2012
loremaster965
Gmail
Blogger
Bulbapedia
(This was a parody of the Nostalgia Critic by Doug Walker on That Guy With The Glasses)