//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Plots Uncovered - Pt. 1 // Story: Pokémon Journey - A Trainer & His Adventure in Equestria // by NinjaMare //------------------------------// Matt was enjoying a nice quiet afternoon in the palace garden with his Pokémon, while occasionally spotting either a single or multiple ponies running around in a frantic state. Which was understandable what with Shining Armor’s and princess Cadence’s wedding being right around the corner, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise for Matt to see maids and butlers running around with decorations and supplies in hoof or magical aura, as well as seeing some of the guards being dragged into helping them. Speaking of the groom and bride Matt hasn’t seen them around as often as he did in the last few days, more so of Shining than Cadence. In fact the last few times that Matt has crossed paths with the princess something seemed, off about her. Matt couldn’t really put his finger on it, but the princess seemed to have lost a bit of her cheerful demeaner, or didn’t seem as vibrant as she was the last time Matt has met her. “Things really seem to be getting down to the wire for the wedding.” Matt commented as he affectionately petted Mienshao who was sitting beside him as he watched a bunch of pegasi fly past the gardens with armfuls of flowers. “Matt!” the trainer perked up when he heard his name being called out, and when he turned to look behind him he spotted Twilight and her friends coming towards him. “Hey there girls.” Matt said to the group as he turned to face them, while they encroached on him and his team of Pokémon who mostly appeared happy to see them. “What are you guys doing here?” “We’re taking part in the wedding!” Pinkie blurted as she hopped up beside the young man and started nuzzling up to him, which the trainer chuckled at the pink pony’s excitement as he starts to pet her. “Oh yeah that’s the stuff.” “So what are all of you going to do for the wedding?” the young man asked the group as they started to mingle amongst the Pokémon. “I’m going to be helping out in the after party preparations!” Pinkie Pie said as Matt started to scratch under her chin, making the female equine coo with delight as she rolls onto her back like a lounging Glameow. “Ah’ll be helping out in the kitchen to bring in some good ol’ home cooking to the whole thing.” Applejack commented as she was about to pet Lycanroc, who just growled at her. “Easy there buddy Ah ain’t gonna hurt cha.” “Sorry Applejack, but Lycanroc doesn’t let other people try and pet her, she gets pretty defensive.” The mare retracted her foreleg and took a step back, which Lycanroc settled down and swagged on over to Matt’s side. “What about the rest of you?” “I’ll be helping with the music by leading a bird chorus.” Fluttershy said as she was petting Ninetales, who was thoroughly enjoying the affection. “As for me I will be designing the wedding dress for the bride, and the other mares that will be taking part in the event.” Rarity said as she stood beside Fluttershy and appeared to be admiring Ninetales’s lustrous fur. Matt looked over at Rainbow Dash who was not trying to make direct eye contact with him but still elaborated on what she was doing for the wedding. “I’ll be performing some aerial tricks with the Wonderbolts to finish out the celebration before the party.” The mare said with as much enthusiasm as a balloon with a hole poked in it. ‘Seriously. She’s still skeptical of me?’ Matt pondered as he watched the cyan mare start quietly bickering with Applejack, he figured that the mare was still feeling a little sour towards him, which was understandable as he and the mare didn’t quite patch things up. “As for me I’ll be helping out with the wedding schedule, making sure that everything really is going as planned.” Twilight remarked as Camerupt waddled his way up to her and started nuzzling into the mare, causing the unicorn to chortle as she started to pet the large bovine like Pokémon’s head. “Hey Twilight, can I ask you something?” Matt asked as he turned to fully face the mare. “Have you been around Cadence at any point today?” “All of us were with her just for a little bit before we started walking around the castle, and then coming to meet you.” Twilight retorted before giving a curious look to the young man. “Why do you ask?” “It may just be me, but doesn’t Cadence seem a bit, different? Like she isn’t acting as cheerful as she usually is?” The rest of the ponies all looked at each other as if they all had the same idea, or notion about something. “She did seem a little bit sour when we all met her and the other princesses.” Pinkie Pie commented as Matt started to give her belly rubs. “It could just be that her nerves are getting to her, after all her big day is just right around the corner darling.” Rarity retorted as she was now stroking Ninetales’s glossy tails getting some delightful cooing noises from the Ice-type Pokémon. “Then I guess it’s just me then.” Matt said as he continued to lavish Pinkie Pie with belly rubs, which the mare was wholeheartedly loving. The group continued to hang out in the garden for a bit longer, but then the mares left the trainer and his team to go and help out where they can. As for Matt he stayed in the garden for a bit longer, simply enjoying the somewhat peace and quiet despite all the ponies still hustling about. But as he was relaxing something caught his eye, it was only for a moment, but the trainer could’ve sworn that he saw something small, and jet black fly past. At first Matt paid it no mind and went back to just kicking back, but then he spotted a few more black objects zip by and going in the same direction. With his curiosity now fully peaked Matt decided to investigate and started to gather up his team, though Lycanroc didn’t want to go back in her Pokéball, so she tagged along, and the two ran out of the garden and went down the hallway that Matt saw the black objects go in. The pair continued to travel along the hallway, but none of them could see anything out of the ordinary. “Guess it was nothing.” Matt said as he rubbed the back of his head before he was about to give up and head back to the garden, Lycanroc started to sniff around as if she caught wind of something. “You got something Lycanroc?” the wolf Pokémon nodded before walking off down a hallway, with Matt following after the Rock-type. The young man kept on following after his Pokémon who clearly was onto something, and as Matt followed Lycanroc he started to noticed something. It was faint, but the longer Matt followed Lycanroc, the more it became more pronounced, and that faint thing was a smell that was like lime juice or something equally as sour smelling. Aside from the smell the trainer also noticed that wherever they were going, the pair have been going down a flight of stairs that lead farther down into the castle, which was getting darker and darker the further they went. And then… “It’s almost time for us to get ready.” A voice suddenly said which caused the pair to stop before they started to creep close to a corner, and upon peeking around the corner Matt spotted a small group of ponies. But they didn’t look like the fuzzy cuddly kind. These ponies were all jet black, but what was stranger was that they all looked like they had bug like wings, and even shiny carapaces. “Question is if everyone else is set up so they can easily take the castle.” One of the insect-like ponies said to the others. “If they followed our queens plans to the letter, than yes.” Another insect-like pony said in response to the others question. “Looks like we stumbled upon something bad.” Matt quietly muttered to himself before he was yanked to the side before hearing something go splat against the wall. “What the!” Matt said as he looked up to see Lycanroc standing in front of him, while three other insect-like ponies stood a few feet from the pair, all of which were glaring at the trainer and Lycanroc with large glossy eyes as their stubby, yet jagged horns glowed with a green aura. “Get those two creatures! We can’t let them interfere with the queens plan!” A barrage of what looked like green goop came flying towards the pair, though they were able to duck out of the way and got ready for a fight, with Matt taking out his extendable staff and Lycanroc howling at the ponies before slamming one of her paws on the ground, which then lobbed several large rocks at them. The ponies managed to fly out of the way, and again fired green globs at the pair, while a few even charged at them. Dodging the globs were a piece of cake as they were quite slow, but when it came to the ones charging at the pair Lycanroc would start fist fighting with them, while Matt started smacking and deflecting the ponies away with his staff. Yet as well as he fought back against these unknown types of ponies, one of them managed to sneak up behind him and tackle him, where he started to feel something slimy and sticky start wrapping around his body! “Crap!” Matt grunted as he tried to struggle to get the pony off him, and tear whatever the stuff was being plastered on him off, but it was proving difficult. Matt then heard Lycanroc howl out in frustration, and when he looked towards where his Pokémon was he saw that she was also getting wrapped up in the same green slop the ponies were spitting out. ‘Damn it they got both of us!’ Matt internally groaned as he toppled to the ground as his legs got fully wrapped up. “One of you go and get the queen, she’ll most likely want to know what these things were doing sneaking around.” one of the ponies commanded to the group, to which one of the others suddenly burst into green fire, where Matt then saw it transformed into a blue pegasus mare and flew off. ‘What the heck? Are they shapeshifters?!’ Matt questioned as he was dragged off by the insectoid pony that had wrapped him up, tossing him to the side with Lycanroc being tossed next to him a second later. And is visibly not happy in being tangled up, but it seems that all of her wriggling around was starting to tear the goop wrapped around her. Looking towards the group of insect-like ponies Matt saw that all of them weren’t looking directly at them, so taking the opportunity Matt leaned down and started to chew the goop off Lycanroc, who noticed what her trainer was doing and laid still to make it easier. Luckily, they didn’t cover his head with goop, otherwise they would’ve been stuck like this till their queen came to check up on them. After a few minutes of chewing through the goop, stopping on occasion when he saw the insect-like ponies look towards him with questioning looks, before turning back and talking amongst themselves. Eventually though the trainer was able to bite through enough of the goop to allow Lycanroc to wriggle out, and when she was free the wolf Pokémon immediately started to rip the goo off Matt. “Good girl Lycanroc.” Matt whispered as he petted the Rock-type’s head, getting a happy quiet yip. After praising his Pokémon Matt reached to his belt and pulled out another Pokéball, and called out another one of his Pokémon which caught the attention of his captors. But it didn’t matter! “Ninetales use Confuse Ray now!” when the fox Pokémon was summoned her tails flared out with each one creating a golden orb, where they were fired at the group of captors and bursting in multiple flashes of golden light, which caused the ponies to shout in fear before they all developed a dazed look. “Good work girl.” Matt quickly praised before running off. “Now let’s get out of here and find Celestia!” the trio then started to run back where Matt and Lycanroc initially came from, climbing up the flight of stairs before bolting down a hallway. But as they reached the end of the hallway they spotted princess Cadence coming their way. “Cadence you gotta hear this, there are these black insect-like ponies down stairs, and it sounded like their plotting something!” “You don’t say.” The princess says calmly before looking up towards Matt…who only just noticed that her eyes were a deep shade of green with slitted irises. “What—” Before Matt could say anything more both he, and his Pokémon, were surrounded by what looked like a cage of green fire. When the cage was erected they all started to sink into the ground! Matt tried to sweep the flaming cage away with his staff, while Lycanroc used her paws, and Ninetales letting out a blast of cold air from her mouth. But nothing they did affected the cage and they just continued to sink further into the floor, till they vanished without a trace. ~~~~~ A groan left Matt as he started to come around, but as he did he felt incredibly stiff and sore as he opened his eyes, though what he saw wasn’t a hallway or some other kind of room in the castle. Instead what Matt found himself in was like a cavern with crystals jutting out everywhere he looked. Aside from the cavern itself, Matt spotted Lycanroc and Ninetales both of whom looked just as sore and stiff as he did. Bringing himself to his feet Matt stumbled his way over to his Pokémon, and started to check them over to see if they were alright, which thankfully they were both fine. But to ensure that they were indeed fine, and kept safe the trainer placed them back into their Pokéballs. Once the Pokémon were safely tucked away the trainer then started to look for a way out of the crystal cavern he was in, but so far it looked like he was trapped in the cavern. However upon inspecting the crystalline walls more thoroughly, he managed to find a narrow crack in the southern wall which appear to exit to another room. “This is going to be a tight fit.” Matt said as he barely manages to slip into the crack, and after a few minutes of carefully wiggling his way through it the young man was finally able to emerge out of the other side. “Well that takes care of that problem, now I just—OOF!” Matt sputtered as he collided with something, but it wasn’t anything rocky or hard, in fact it was soft and warm. Looking down at what he stumbled into Matt was surprised at what he had found before him. “What the heck, Princess Cadence!” the young man instantly jumped back and quickly pulled out his staff, but as he did so he also spotted something else. another alicorn that was a foot behind her, though this one was a dark blue coloring, with silver regalia and a mane and tail that looked like the night sky. ‘Who in the hell is this?!’