It was the same day as always.

The small Riolu held the big blue apple in her hand like it was something to be treasured.

It vaguely resembled a regular red apple in shape but it tasted nothing like that. She took a bite and savored the rich aroma that exploded in her mouth.

A seemingly impossible combination of sweet and freshness lingered on her tongue with some more subtle nuances the Riolu couldn't point out, but knew were there.

Her eyes were closed as she took another bite, her tail happily wagging behind her in joy.

"Where did you find this?" Riolu asked once she had finished the Bitter Apple and nothing was left of it, except for some juices dripping down her mouth.

The Lucario who sat in front of her on the grass smiled secretly. "Not going to tell you, sweety."

Riolu pouted.

Her mom giggled upon seeing the cute pout and pulled Riolu closer to her. Riolu squealed with happiness and began playing with Lucario's soft fur, rubbing her paws against it in a playful manner.

Lucario burst out laughing, "H-h-Hey c-c-ut it!"

With a swift move, Riolu was suddenly no longer in her mom's embrace, instead, she had been thrown up into the air.

Riolu could not quite suppress a surprised shout.

A second later she landed perfectly in her mom's arms. The small Riolu gazed up at the red mischievous eyes and gulped. The next second, she was dropped to the ground.

Leaves rustled as she hit the ground and her fall was softened by the lustrous grass.

"Only I have the permission to tickle." Her mom looked down on her with a smirk.

Riolu squealed while her mom grinned.

The two Pokémon began to play together underneath the light of the descending sun. It was like a perfect picture of pure happiness. The two of them, both living their lives in the Pinwheel Forest. Far away from their homes in Sinnoh, yet at that moment perfectly content with everything.

The sun dipped underneath the horizon and slowly the orange skies shifted into a deep blue color.

With tired eyes, Riolu put her head on her mom's lap while she watched the endless ocean of stars above her, untouched by the eons of life on Earth, blissfully shining down on them.

The wind blew over the treetops, a cold and chilling breeze but it wasn't uncomfortable.

Their species originated from Sinnoh where they used to live on mountains, Unova's breeze was nothing compared to that. It was a warm, embracing one.

Above the lights flickered in the canvas of the night sky.

"So many of them," Riolu said with awe. "I can't even count them."

"Maybe if you did you might fall asleep," Her mom scolded her, but it was followed by a playful wink.

"I don't wanna." She resisted the urge to yawn but it was getting difficult not to.

She decided to play her ultimate card, "Bedtime story first!"

"It's quite late." Her mom didn't give in.

"About the stars," Riolu kept negotiating. "Please…?"

With big eyes, she gazed up at her mom.

"Fine," Her mom rolled her eyes. "You want to hear about the stars?"

"Yup."

"Well," Lucario stuck out her tongue, "I heard they are gigantic balls of plasma, held up in the sky by their own immense gravity, or at least that's what I heard humans call them."

Riolu gave her mom a deadpan stare. "Seriously?"

Her mom shrugged, "You wanted a story, sweety."

"A real story!"

Her mom sighed, "Fine, I suppose the human view doesn't really leave a lot to the imagination." She paused for a second, "I could tell you the story my mother always told me,"

Riolu happily nodded and nestled herself in a comfortable position.

"Yes, that already sounds a lot better."

"Well, according to my mother, your grandmother, the stars are remnants."

Lucario began petting Riolu's head. "The remnants of a world, no, a universe filled with light, that's why we can still see them even though they are miles away. That light travels through empty space for years, just to reach us."

"Light?" Riolu asked skeptically.

Her mom hummed. "Yes indeed, aura but in its purest form, imagine a universe made of pure life. A paradise if you want to call it. A place with only happiness. Can you imagine that?"

Riolu closed her eyes and visualized a place where everything was perfect; the sun would always shine obviously which meant she never had to sleep. There would be no mean humans and she would be able to play with her mom and dad all day.

It sounded perfect.

"Now imagine that one day, the universe decides to end it all with a big explosion. Everything shatters into small fragments."

The picture in Riolu’s mind shattered, it became darker and closer to reality.

"Why?" She opened her eyes. "Why would the universe do such a thing? If everything was perfect..."

Her mom smiled and closed Riolu's eyes, it wouldn't be helpful if the bedtime story kept her up all night.

"Of course it has to end, all things do. A perfect world should end too."

"It shouldn't." Riolu protested. She didn't want this to end.

"Yet the universe chose to. Knowing that their end would give birth to a new beginning. Don't you think that's even more beautiful? Thanks to their choice, we exist and we have an entire night sky to look at, because of their choice."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"This world sucks," Riolu muttered. "There are so many wrong things."

"I used to think that too," Lucario admitted, "However as the seasons came and went, I learned that this world is perfect." She petted Riolu, "It gave me you. And it gave you me, it's worth the end of eternal happiness. I don't care about the losses, not anymore."

Riolu yawned, "But-"

"No buts," Her mom cut her off, "You wanted a story, here you go. A nice and fitting story."

"But it sucks. The ending is so..."

Her mom smiled at Riolu's loss for words. "That's life, perfect in its imperfection. Of course, the ending is bitter. The stars only shine in the dark after all."

"I still don't get it."

"One day you will," her mom declared, "But for now, it's bedtime."

Lucario waved her paw over Riolu's eyes. A soft blue flame surrounded her paw.

Riolu fell asleep a second later.

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Riolu blinked when she saw her mom holding a Bitter Apple.

"Morning sleepy." Her mom greeted her. "Had a nice rest?"

Drool dripped out of the corner of Riolu's mouth, she quickly closed it but her mom had spotted it.

"See something you like?" Lucario said with a knowing smile. "It's only one hug."

"Where do you keep getting them?" She moved forward and embraced her mom. Yellow fur brushed against blue as the pair shared a brief moment of intimacy.

"That's a mommy secret." Lucario laughed and flipped the Bitter Apple at Riolu. "And it costs so many hugs you'll never be able to pay for it."

Riolu ignored her mom's joke when she saw that her mom would be eating nothing, "But what are you going to eat?"

"Don't worry about me sweety, you are the one who still needs to grow."

With a slightly guilty conscience, she began eating the apple while her mom watched her with a proud smile.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Riolu asked once she had finished her bitter apple.

"What do you want to do?" Lucario countered, the same she asked every day.

Riolu shrugged, "I want to play with my friends at the cliff."

A short look of disappointment crossed her mom's face before it turned back to the serene smile she always wore. "Sweety, I already told you it's too dangerous, what if you fall?"

"But all the other Pokémon play there!" Riolu protested.

"That's no reason to do the same," Her mom shrugged, "Maybe there's another Pokémon who wants to play with you, one less…suicidal."

"But what if they call me a coward?" Riolu felt a fright overcome her heart.

"Then you tell me and I'll beat th-" Lucario saw Riolu's big shocked eyes. "...them at a friendly game of tag."

Both Pokémon let out a sigh of relief. Crisis averted.

"You shouldn't care what others call you," Her mom encouraged her. "You are my hero."

"How am I a hero?"

Lucario enclosed Riolu in a deep embrace. "By just being you."

"T-that doesn't make any sense." Riolu struggled to breathe.

"Nope, it's a fact." Lucario released the small Pokémon. "Now, how about we go to the lake together. We might even spot Suicune!"

Riolu rolled her eyes. "We never spot Suicune."

"We might today."

"You always say that."

Her mom shot her a playful wink.

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Today was another day.

Riolu sneaked through the forest, darkness was falling yet she was careful not to step onto a branch that might alert others of her presence. If her mom figured out she had been playing at the cliff with Swadloon, she would be in big trouble.

With grace she jumped through the bushes, approaching the den they had claimed as their home. She made sure she would arrive from the lakeside of the forest, that way her mom wouldn't suspect a thing.

It was this caution, or maybe it was sheer luck, that alerted her of another presence.

"Hahaha!" A cruel laugh came from the den. The laugh sounded sharp, wrong even. “There you are again."

The laughter chilled Riolu's bones to the core.

It wasn't her mother's voice.

She peeked through a small opening between the bushes and peered into the clearing.

Her breath hitched. She saw her mom lying on her back. Her yellow fur had been stained an ugly red and one eye was swollen shut.

Riolu suddenly found she couldn't breathe.

"I told you," A woman with blue hair began to talk to one of her companions. "Bitter Apples are irresistible to the Lucario species."

The stranger was not alone, other humans and mean-looking Pokémon were present.

The woman with the blue hair knelt down in front of her mother, her back exposed to Riolu. "I had expected more from you, but seeing how you came back every time, it seems I was wrong."

She sounded amused. "I'm disappointed, that's all I can call it. Luckily there's some big money for shiny Pokémon like you so at least there's that."

Lucario glared at the woman but then, from the corner of her eyes, she spotted Riolu lurking in the bushes. Her eyes shot open.

Riolu’s mind went blank for a second. The expression on her mom's face told her to run. An almost hardwired part of her brain understood that much, the expression of pure despair.

It scared Riolu, so she took a few steps back.

Crack!

A branch snapped underneath Riolu's feet and she let out a yelp.

"Ooh?" The woman said with surprise. She turned around and their eyes met. Or, what would have been eyes.

Black glasses obfuscated her eyes and only showed a pale skin and thin line for a mouth.

"Seems like we have a sneaky spectator with us here, Key, why don't you take a look?"

It wasn't until that moment that Riolu learned the true meaning of despair. The expression on her mom's face was forever captured in her mind.

But the disappointment on her face when they dragged her to the blue-haired woman, was even worse.

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It was another day.

The world was clouded by confusion, an endless blur that clouded her mind and turned her entire world into a vague afterimage and made her unable to think straight.

An overload of senses caused her mind to go blank, on top of that a weird blue glow covered everything she saw.

There was so much going on right now, smoke and ash covered the ground like a blanket, screams, and cries filled the air and hot scrap metal burned underneath her feet.

Above her the starless night sky, an inky black abyss, was looming over her. She was back on the ground at least.

Riolu had to find her mother, she knew that much.

On auto-pilot, she struggled her way through the smoking ruins. What had happened was still unclear to her, all she knew was that the ship suddenly stopped flying. Why? No idea.

Riolu gazed up at the orange sky, smoke, and orange embers weaved into the sunset where a certain blue-haired huntress was riding on the back of a Salamence.

"Dear…" A dry voice croaked.

Her eyes darted around the devastation that surrounded her. She perked her ears, trying to find where the voice came from.

To the left.

She turned her head around, and gasped. Her blood went rigid.

A big metal rod protruded from her mom's stomach. The cage she had been in had collapsed when the ship crashed.

The metal bars had bent inward and an unfortunate sharp spike pinned her mom to the ground. It kept her pinned down, any slight movement would tear the wound wide open.

Red liquid spread over the soil and her mom's breathing was painfully jagged. Every breath was raspy, dark liquid pooled around the wound.

Riolu couldn't think.

What was she supposed to do?

Her entire body felt like it wasn't hers, she couldn't move even if she wanted to. Yet if she could move, what could she have done?

She felt useless.

A wet substance began to form in the corners of her eyes and she began to tear up.

A shaky voice attempted to say something. The stark realization it was her mother's dawned on her.

Lucario was running out of breath as blood began to leave her body. She tried to move but she was stuck, suspended like a puppet on strings and unable to move her own body.

She managed to heave out a few words despite that.

"Please… don't… cry."

Riolu didn't, although she wanted it so badly.

When Lucario's eyes closed for the final time a serene smile was on her face like she knew a secret no one else knew.

Riolu held back the tears and stared up at the sky where the blue-haired monster was flying around on the back of a Dragon Pokémon.

That moment, she promised herself that she would not cry.

But that woman, that monster, she would cry.