Ashes of the Past

Ashes of the Past is a Pokémon fanfic by Saphroneth. It can be read here.

Summary by the author: Time travel, based on the Anime. So, the world ended. That's bad news. Who best to get to fix it? Well, there is this guy with a track record in world saving... Not entirely serious. T rating may be overdoing it.

Synopsis on Fanfic Recs: At some point during the Pokemon: Best Wishes season, Cyrus succeeded in remaking the world in his image. Arceus did not like that very much, so he chose a champion to go back in time to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Naturally, having already saved the world several times and having great potential with Aura, Ash Ketchum is that champion. After a week in a pocket dimension training to learn Aura, Ash is returned to the day he started his Pokemon Journey with the ability to restore his friends' memories of the other timeline and sets off to solve as many problems as possible...and, of course, have fun on the way.

"Dexter: Also, battles will almost invariably end in some improbable manifestation of power."
 * Beyond the Impossible: Gary's Blastoise and Ash's Squirtle are guilty of this. Ash's Squirtle in particular has even broke space. To quote Dexter:

"Ash: I've heard of showy, but that turtle takes the cake."
 * Blood Magic: The secret to using ghost-type attacks while still alive and not getting fatigued.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: James', Misty's Psyduck and Arceus are guilty of this.
 * Bring My Brown Pants: Implied to have happen to Damian, the guy who Ash's Charizard used to belong to and abandoned him.
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday: Ash tells  after he joins Ash that the time they saved him from Hunter J, he considered it a slow week.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Due to Ash being able to restore the memories, and power, and evolutionary level, of his pokemon, and that of his friends, including Jessie, James and Meowth to whatever they were before Cyrus did his thing, they meet some people who they completely overpower.
 * Early on, when Ash encountered the samurai guy who uses Bug-type pokemon a second time from his point of view, well, it is easy to guess how that went.
 * When they did the Princess Tournament again, the early rounds, in the author's words, were one-sided.
 * Evil Versus Oblivion: The purpose of Rocket executives, or at least the department the  Jessie, James, and Meowth are in. You can't rule or make a profit in a destroyed world, so somebody needs to point Idiot Heroes in the right direction to protect all those potential victims.
 * Friendly Enemy: Jessie, James and Meowth. After their memories got restored and Ash explained the situation to them of course.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Some of the sillier/weirder/crazier stuff that happened in the anime gets commented on by the characters.
 * Large Ham: Ash's Squirtle, oh so very much. Same with Gary's Blastoise. Ash has this to say about his Squirtle:

"Dexter: You heard nothing. I most definitely did not mention a silly nickname we have for ourselves."
 * lampshaded it asking if Gary's Blastoise was feeling well.
 * Mission from God: Arceus himself gave Ash the mission of making sure Cyrus doesn't succeed.
 * Otaku: Ash's Squirtle, Gary's Blastoise and the entire Squirtle evolutionary family are all Otaku of one type or another.
 * No Sense of Direction: Emphasised and lampshaded in this story.
 * Peggy Sue: The basic premise of the story.
 * Secret Legacy: In this story, Ash is actually a descendant of Sir Aaron through his father's side.
 * Sequence Breaking: This has happened and probably will again.
 * Ash goes to Cameran to free Aaron's Lucario and collect Aaron's equipment right after getting the Boulder Badge. Compare to the original timeline where he only went to Cameran after the Hoenn League during the Battle Frontier arc.
 * Ash clashes with  before he finishes the Kanto League, about the time he was supposed to get Muk. In the original timeline, Ash clashed with   while in Sinnoh.
 * Ash captures Muk way later than the original timeline, while helping that movie director, because he forgot about Muk due to the battle with.
 * Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Ash was sent back in time to make sure Cyrus doesn't succeed in his second attempt to capture the Creation Trio.
 * Stating the Simple Solution: Some characters point out to other characters very simple solutions to problems they had during the original timeline. Vague wording due to the fact that the relevant positions are sometimes switched around.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: The way Dexter denied that the three porygons have a silly nickname for themselves.


 * Weirdness Magnet: Misty actually calls Ash this.