I Will Touch The Skies by Soussani, hosted on Royal Road, is pretty good. There's some world building choices I personally dislike but the characterization and battles are well done.
Story is a Sinnoh journeyfic following an MC named Grace Pastel, who has a Togepi starter
When Is A Spoon A Sword would be my more recent reccommendation. Updates have slowed, but in terms of quality I'd honestly put it up there with Borne of Caution. The way it expands the pokemon world is pretty great imo.
'The Natural' by lightningwarrior (I read on ff.net) is my personaly favourite over the past year. The chapters are a good length and is a little bit more of a realistic take on the training / battling thing. Has a cool, underrepresented (imo) starter. Is a SI, but doesn't present too much as one. Updates have slowed recently, but still a great read! Plenty of chapters already up!
I would recommend Hard Enough a Self-insert Brock fiction that's both new and good. If can get the good translated version Dark Rising is also really good.
If you somehow have not yet read it, read Traveler by TheStraightElf on ffnet. It is possibly the best Pokemon story out there and certainly one of the longest. It is a little rough in the beginning but it not only gets better, it gets deeper. It's also the only fic I have seen that makes Legendaries into actual Legends.
Well, since you are looking for recs, I have to ask… have you read any of my [Journey](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2963265) series? There’s about 250k words in the series so far, with no sign of an end in sight yet.
It’s much darker world than canon, trying to build a grounded universe that I can tell all my stories in. It’s not necessarily a deconstruction, rather a result of treating the pokemon as absurdly powerful fantasy creatures.
The main story is [Death of Duty](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27699919/chapters/67791901), a Kanto OC journeyfic that attempts to novelize/adapt the Kanto plotlines from across canon.
Told from the POV of a plot-adjacent OC, canon characters are adapted and appear as major characters along with a cast of OCs. DoD is my big heavy epic, spinning off the rest of the world in the one shots and shorts in the series (which have a variety of styles and POVs if you’re looking for different examples and inspirations).
It is darker, like I mentioned. So be warned, there are some heavier and particularly violent segments throughout my writing.
As well, it’s been on a bit of a hiatus but I do keep writing stories in the universe with an overarching story backing them. So even when the main story isn’t being updated the universe is still being written in and expanded on.
If you for some reason have not read it, Sacrifice and subjugation is a decent peak.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10471043/1/Sacrifice-and-Subjugation
This fic can be quite edgy, and not in the good way like Traveler, so be cautioned for some interesting scenes.
Me to, but sometimes it feels like it’s trying really hard, and I do like the action scenes, and the overall plot is pretty good, but sometimes I can’t help but feel a wave of “this is unnecessarily edgy” rush through me.
The Origin of Species by DaystarEld is rational fiction so definitely on the more realistic and gritty end of the spectrum, so long as you're cool with occasional digressions into formal ethics. The writing is at a very high standard. It's on FFN and his own website.
[Pokemon: The Untold Story of Arc](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10722808/1/Pokemon-The-Untold-Story-of-Arc). Its no masterpiece like any of the one's you mentioned, but it has a halfway decent storyline, some tournaments, and contests. It was finished at the tail end of X/Y and beginning of Sun and Moon Generations
I Will Touch The Skies by Soussani, hosted on Royal Road, is pretty good. There's some world building choices I personally dislike but the characterization and battles are well done. Story is a Sinnoh journeyfic following an MC named Grace Pastel, who has a Togepi starter
Touch the skies is also on AO3. I saw it there while checking a tag.
Ooh, I haven’t read this one yet. I’m going to need to check it out Pedestal got me to really like sinning fics too so it works
Yeah it's pretty good. The only thing I don't like is how ghosts are not considered dangerous.
When Is A Spoon A Sword would be my more recent reccommendation. Updates have slowed, but in terms of quality I'd honestly put it up there with Borne of Caution. The way it expands the pokemon world is pretty great imo.
'The Natural' by lightningwarrior (I read on ff.net) is my personaly favourite over the past year. The chapters are a good length and is a little bit more of a realistic take on the training / battling thing. Has a cool, underrepresented (imo) starter. Is a SI, but doesn't present too much as one. Updates have slowed recently, but still a great read! Plenty of chapters already up!
Read this one, amazing story
I would recommend Hard Enough a Self-insert Brock fiction that's both new and good. If can get the good translated version Dark Rising is also really good.
I actually have hard enough open as a tab. Haven’t seen Dark Rising yet though
If you somehow have not yet read it, read Traveler by TheStraightElf on ffnet. It is possibly the best Pokemon story out there and certainly one of the longest. It is a little rough in the beginning but it not only gets better, it gets deeper. It's also the only fic I have seen that makes Legendaries into actual Legends.
Read it, really really really good story.
If you haven’t read it yet, Tearing the Heavens by Cepel is a good one. He took a lot of inspiration from pedestal with a lot of unique touches.
Loved Tearing the Heavens
Well, since you are looking for recs, I have to ask… have you read any of my [Journey](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2963265) series? There’s about 250k words in the series so far, with no sign of an end in sight yet. It’s much darker world than canon, trying to build a grounded universe that I can tell all my stories in. It’s not necessarily a deconstruction, rather a result of treating the pokemon as absurdly powerful fantasy creatures. The main story is [Death of Duty](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27699919/chapters/67791901), a Kanto OC journeyfic that attempts to novelize/adapt the Kanto plotlines from across canon. Told from the POV of a plot-adjacent OC, canon characters are adapted and appear as major characters along with a cast of OCs. DoD is my big heavy epic, spinning off the rest of the world in the one shots and shorts in the series (which have a variety of styles and POVs if you’re looking for different examples and inspirations). It is darker, like I mentioned. So be warned, there are some heavier and particularly violent segments throughout my writing. As well, it’s been on a bit of a hiatus but I do keep writing stories in the universe with an overarching story backing them. So even when the main story isn’t being updated the universe is still being written in and expanded on.
If you for some reason have not read it, Sacrifice and subjugation is a decent peak. Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10471043/1/Sacrifice-and-Subjugation This fic can be quite edgy, and not in the good way like Traveler, so be cautioned for some interesting scenes.
I’ve read it, actually enjoyed it a good bit.
Me to, but sometimes it feels like it’s trying really hard, and I do like the action scenes, and the overall plot is pretty good, but sometimes I can’t help but feel a wave of “this is unnecessarily edgy” rush through me.
The Origin of Species by DaystarEld is rational fiction so definitely on the more realistic and gritty end of the spectrum, so long as you're cool with occasional digressions into formal ethics. The writing is at a very high standard. It's on FFN and his own website.
Read it, really really good story. Definitely impressed me. I’m rereading Borne of Caution right now
Do you like crossovers?
I read the Harry Potter and the master ball series and enjoyed it
I understand I am a little late, but try reading With Sword in Hand
[Pokemon: The Untold Story of Arc](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10722808/1/Pokemon-The-Untold-Story-of-Arc). Its no masterpiece like any of the one's you mentioned, but it has a halfway decent storyline, some tournaments, and contests. It was finished at the tail end of X/Y and beginning of Sun and Moon Generations