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// Chapter 8-Class is now in session 
// Story: I'm on a Master Quest 
// by Purple Pony 
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	The lecture hall is huge. It looks a lot like the dorms room, but with less windows. The front doors loom menacingly at the top of a small set of stairs. Most students hate seeing those doors, as it means listening to a teacher going “blah blah blah blah blah” for about 3 hours.
Two students, however, are much more upbeat, one Pegasus that literally can’t stop being happy, and one thestral that has spent too much time near said Pegasus. 
“Sunny, you do realize that we are about half an hour early, right?” I ask the mare.
“Of course! I want to pick our seats early, and help out the professor!” Sunny replies with exclamation points.
“If you say so. I’m just glad to be back to normal.” The past two days were kind of stressful, but once I was back to normal, I was able to relax. I’ve even used the bracelet a couple times, just to get used to the feeling. I probably won’t use it during class, but it could be practical elsewhere.
Well, the interior of the lecture hall is much livelier. It has several different posters of Flurry Heart, and a trophy case filled with her wins and her team. A team consisting of Dragonite, Blastoise, Scyther (the biggest question mark on her team), Zoroark, Togekiss, and Ampharos. I know that it would take a miracle for me to beat that team in a fight. 
Taking the first right, we arrive in the room and see Flurry setting up a projector, with several slides being rotated through. Some of her early days, back before she won her first title over Starlight Glimmer, show up on the wall. It is quite refreshing, seeing her just as old as me, and still not the household name that she became.
“Hello, Professor!” Sunny beams. If Sunny lacks one thing, it’s subtlety.
“GAH, Don’t do that, please, Sunny.” The princess looks flustered. “You remind me of Pinkie Pie.”
“Well, I did live with her for a while, so she rubbed off on me!” Sunny answers.
“Sweet Celestia, please save us all.” Flurry says in a mock dread tone.
“Anyways, we came early so we could help you set up your stuff. And I couldn’t sleep past four.” I change the topic quickly.
“Anxious?”
“Nope, thestral’s slightly nocturnal habits. Never needed much sleep.”
“That means my spell did its job! Did you keep the bracelet?” Flurry asks.
“Sunshine here did buy it, so why not?”
“DON’T USE MY FULL NAME!!!!!” Sunny shouts. From right next to me. Ow, my ears!
“Well, since you’re here, I’ll go ahead and have you two pass out the books.” Flurry says. “I’ve got to get this projector set up.”
Passing out books is easy with a psychic-type. Espeon distributed all the books in about thirty seconds. Then Leafeon, neat-freak that she is, carefully organized each seat. I counted thirty seats. You would think there would be more.
“How many students are there this year?”
“Lemme look on the list and…twenty-seven. Certainly not the most, but far from the least.” Flurry answers.
Small class. Ah well, it means less ponies I freak out come time for class to start. Not for the first time, I consider transforming into a Pegasus, but then I realize I could set a counter on how many students run away screaming. Much more entertaining.



The class is about to start, and I count twenty that have run screaming. Of the other five, one is blind, and the other four are eyeing my up suspiciously. Probably asking themselves how much of a head start they would need to get away if I decided to bite them. From my estimates, the earth ponies need about three seconds’ head start to get out of the room before me. The Pegasus could make it easily, and the unicorns, assuming they can’t teleport, need about four seconds. 
The blind Pegasus sits right beside me, opposite Sunny. She introduces herself as Snowdrop, and she wants to know more about Pokemon so she doesn’t have to be so helpless. Nice girl. As a bonus, she doesn’t give a bit about appearances. 
Finally, the other students see that I haven’t eaten anypony yet, and file into their seats. A few look nervous, but at least they calm down enough to not glance at me every five seconds. 
“Hello class! Welcome to your first class here at Flurry Hearts School of Trainers. I am Flurry Heart, and I will be your professor for these next three months! Now, you all probably know quite a bit about me, so I want to hear a bit about you. We’ll start off over here” she points over to the other side of the classroom “and go around the room, each of you telling me your name, where you’re from, why you want to go to a school for Pokemon, and one interesting thing about yourselves.”
So it begins. There are ponies that are from Cloudsdale, Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehatten, and a few locals. Several ponies want to compete, some want to just know more than what books have, and a few came here for a break in the monotony. Nopony really sticks out to me, though, so I’ll probably forget them soon enough. 
Eventually, it gets around to me. “My name is Cloud Song, I’m from Hollow Shades, I want to compete, and my mother is the strongest Gym Leader in Equestria.” Several ponies look at me with surprise in their face, a few with accusation, as if saying there is no way my mother is the strongest Gym Leader, since their local Gym is way harder. “Hey, numbers don’t lie.” I say.
Next to me, Sunny bounces in her seat. When it gets to her turn, I get treated to a wonderfully ear-piercing shout. “Hi! I’m Sunshine Drops, or Sunny for short! I’m from Cloudsdale, and I came here to learn more about Pokemon! As for something interesting, well, I lived with Pinkie Pie in Ponyville for a while, and I can fire a Party Cannon! So SURPRISE!” A Party Cannon goes off somewhere in the rafters, and confetti rains down on everypony in the room. She must have set this up a few days ago, since there is no way she could have brought it in today without me seeing.
After about five seconds, everypony stops screaming, and start looking at Sunny with a look that says “What the hay is up with her?” 
“Okaayyyy…anyways, that’s everypony here, so now I’ll go over what we will be doing here. This class will be split up into book lessons and field lessons. Book lessons are going to be in here, with lectures and other stuff that you ponies will probably hate with a passion, but it is necessary. The field lessons, however, will be more hooves-on, with actual Pokemon, with actual battles, with actual action. You will be learning as you go, which different Pokemon you feel more comfortable with, which strategies you go with, how far you think ahead, when to swap, and how to change it up when necessary. If you watch any of my fights, after about the round of 64, a strategy is very easy to recognize, so other trainers will be able to counter it. I almost lost in my third year to Sky Song in the round of 32, simply because she used my preferred opening against me. Adaptability is key. The time your strategy goes off without a hitch is the time you were so strong they couldn’t stop it.” Flurry lectures. I can tell the book lessons are going to be soooooo booooooriiiing. 
“Now, this afternoon, we will have another lecture, with Princess Twilight Sparkle giving the lecture. She is the one who lets us have all these Pokemon, so please be polite. As for now, class is dismissed.” And everypony makes a mad dash out into the sunshine. I, however, stay back for a little while, for one reason.
“How did you get that cannon up there?”
“It’s simple, Silly! I just used a pulley system! Half an hour before class started!” Sunny answers. Wait. WHAT?! HOW DID SHE-don’t question it don’t question it don’t question it.
“Cloud? Could you come with me for a while? Twilight wondered exactly who she was reading about when I sent the data. She’ll want to meet you. Don’t worry, she won’t question you mercilessly, I hope.” Flurry voluntold me. 
“I guess. I still need to ask my mom about this, so I won’t be able to answer every single question.” I say.
“Okay, she’ll get here at about 1, so go have lunch, and be at the station before then.” Then she teleports away. Just thinking about teleporting gives me an upset stomach. 
Sunny had already left, I’m assuming to go do…actually, I can’t tell with her. That mare continues to surprise me. As I’m leaving, I see that one colt hasn’t quite left yet. What was his name…Thunder Crash? I think that was it. Anyways, he had stayed behind, with his wings spread out wide. “Ummmmm…Hello?” I ask tentatively.
“What is it with you? You stay behind with the professor, and walk away like it is nothing. You say your mother is the strongest Gym Leader. You wanted to keep track of how many ponies ran away screaming. Am I missing anything?” He says accusingly.
“The fact that my mother almost beat Flurry Heart?” I egg him on. I’m really interested to see where this goes.
“Now you’re just messing with me. But no matter. You are a freak, a wannabe, a nobody. Don’t act all high and mighty when you are really just a coward with high connections. I need to put you in your place. Unless-“
“Will you please stop with the evil monologue? I don’t have all day.” I interrupt him. Seriously, this guy thinks he can take me?
“THAT’S IT! YOUR BEATING COMES NOW!” And he charges at me. Really? Does he not realize that that is the worst way to start a fight? Oh well, time to educate this colt.
He unleashes a wide swing with his right hoof that I block easily, then I do a quick jab to the face. He stumbles back, and instead of pressing the advantage (I can almost hear my mom now, “KEEP ON THE OFFENSE”), I wait for him to recover. Simply because it’s clear he has no fighting experience whatsoever. 
After a while, he charges me again, and looks like he’s trying to tackle me, as if we were playing hoofball. I dodge him by flapping my wings and soaring over him, and then embarrass him by yawning, saying “I’m going to close my eyes. If you aren’t gone by the count of ten, I’ll actually take this fight somewhat seriously.” Messing with this colt is fun. 
He assaults me while I have my eyes closed. From what I can hear, he hasn’t learned his lesson one bit. Still charging right at me. Probably going for a knockout. Unfortunately for him, I stick a hoof out in his direction and he proceeds to run into it and clothesline himself. I open my eyes, look at him, climb over him, and grab my bracelet. Time to really mess with this Pegasus.
“Thestrals have super-sensitive hearing. And it’s been ten seconds, and I still can’t take you seriously. It’s quite funny, watching you fight. If a professional fighter makes it look like a dance, you make it look like a seizure.” I put on the bracelet and transform into a Pegasus. “Now, I’ll give you a bit of an advantage and use a form I haven’t gotten comfortable with. Still wanna fight?” He shakes his head no. “Good. And for the record, I’m training to be a guard. So I’ve seen ponies fight. You really are terrible at it.” I step off of him, and he quickly flies away, out the door, and to wherever he feels most comfortable.
“At least you didn’t hurt him.” Flurry says from behind me. I whip around and see her standing there, with a look on her face that says “I should be mad at you, but I can’t bring myself to be.” “I didn’t leave when I teleported. I noticed that Pegasus waiting for you, and wanted to see how this went. You did not disappoint.”
“I was barely even trying.” I say.
“I could tell. You managed to defend yourself, without threatening the safety of your attacker. Come on, let’s go meet Aunt Twilight.”
Nodding, I follow Flurry outside, and thankfully I’m still in Pegasus form. Golly, the Empire is reflective. “How did mom stand it?”
“Sunglasses.” Flurry says. 
“Ah. I had actually wanted to do something worse to that colt.”
“Please don’t say anything illegal.” Flurry says apprehensively.
“I was just going to transform him into a thestral for a while, and see how he liked it.” I say, with a somewhat evil grin on my face.
Flurry, however, does not seem amused. “Seriously, don’t do that. He would be scarred for life.”
“Jeez, Flurry, calm down. I can think of only one pony who would like it, and that would be Sunny. She would probably flip out when she realizes that she can use it.” Little did I know, that a certain sky-blue Pegasus with a golden mane was within earshot. And she heard every word.
“THANKS FOR TELLING ME, GIMME!” and she snatches the bracelet from my hoof. Before I can even process that it was Sunny who took it, she put it on her hoof. I get treated to the sight of Sunny being engulfed in green light, and after it dies away, I see Sunny, but as a thestral. Her emerald eyes are now slitted like a cat’s, her wings are now featherless, less bird-like and more bat-like. Her ears now have fluffy tufts on the top, and when she smiles, I see her fangs. “So, how do I look?”
I’m half tempted to say something like “cute” or even, if I felt bold, “hot”, but I settle for “Like a vampony bit you.” 
Flurry, however, stares in shock. “You just slapped that bracelet on, without a second thought, just to see what it was like?!”
“I told you, I lived with Pinkie Pie, she rubbed off on me.” The now-thestral says.
Flurry just shakes her head. “I just hope Pinkie isn’t coming with Twilight. I don’t think the Empire could handle two of you in the same city.”
“Knowing our luck, that will happen because you said it.” I point out helpfully.
Flurry cursed. Sunny smiles. “Knowing Pinkie, it definitely will happen. She’s like that.” Flurry curses even more.
“All right, let’s just get to the station before Twilight arrives.” Flurry says in defeat. My stomach rumbles. “After lunch.” I nod in agreement.
Sunny starts trying to fly, and after a little wobble at the start, she gets the hang of it. I’m coaching her all the way. “Thestral wings work best when you are moving forward, while Pegasus wings can work at any speed. Don’t stop moving and you’ll be fine.” I coach. 
After getting the bracelet back, I transform into a thestral and fly around with her. What can I say, her joy in infectious. Then she squeals in delight after coming in for a landing (a perfect one mind you), but it comes out as a screech.
Now, our screeches can be different when we want them to be. Most of the time, a screech is just a screech, but a screech can also be a Screech, forcing an opponent to cover their ears and opening them up. It could also be like a Supersonic, disorienting the target it they aren’t prepared. Then the hardest one, the one Sunny pulled off first time, is a screech like a Sonic Boom, where our screech actually hits things with force. And Sunny just took the head off of the statue of the national hero, Spike the dragon. Oh dear.
To cap it off, Flurry unleashes the worst torrent of cursing yet. I join her.
Sunny, however, just says “Oops” in the most sheepish tone she can do. Then we leave, thanks to Flurry teleporting us away. Hopefully Spike doesn’t show up soon.