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Act 1 - Welcome To Equestria60 words
Chapter 13,324 words
Chapter 1.5 - Bonus5,046 words
Chapter 22,668 words
Chapter 32,931 words
Chapter 42,825 words
Chapter 53,802 words
Chapter 63,924 words
Chapter 72,940 words
Chapter 83,661 words
Chapter 94,371 words

Chapter 4

"A plan without holes is not a plan, it's an idea."

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“Perfect! Let’s get to business.” The mother said before leaving the room and entering the bathroom. I left right after her, awaiting the time to get that blood off my coat. The constant smell of iron was really getting on my nerves.

She opened the shower curtains and open the water valves, letting the warm liquid flow through. At first, I thought that she would only prepare the water and leave, but I realised that I would actually need help scrubbing my coat. Luckily for me, she already had the intention of helping me at said task.

“There you go, Umbreon. Just jump in there and I’ll make sure that your black coat shines bright.” She said, her smile inviting me to get inside the tub. I cautiously entered, being the first time since Neige found me that I would take a shower with somebody else. Pokemon didn’t have the same nudity taboos as humans had, but it was still an activity strictly reserved for my master and I.

Against my own opinions, and because the blood wouldn’t come off otherwise, I jumped inside the steel tub. I slowly relaxed as the lukewarm water flowed over me. My muscles loosened up and peace was finally ruling my chaotic mind.

“Well, would you look at that. It seems like Nail was the least of your problems. You are bruised literally everywhere!” I didn’t understand what she meant by then until she started rubbing the liquid soap she poured on my back. It seemed that my visit to the nearest forest went well, all things considered. I rolled my eyes internally, wishing that I was still in bed, out of danger and near my Neige.

“Don’t worry. I still have some bruise salve that Idube gave me.” She continued to rub my sensitive skin to get the shampoo everywhere. “Idube is who you’ll need to see for the healing remedies for your friend. She’s the leader of the Zebra tribe located south from here.”

I wanted to see what she was doing, but I had to close my eyes to prevent the soap from entering. I remembered the first time Neige cleaned me. I was running around, using tackle to attack her before realising that it was all an accident and that a few drops of water was enough to save my eyes. Now that I think about it, I really was hyperactive when I was young. I wonder what changed me into the lazy one I am now.

It took about five minutes, but I was finally free of the filth that was staining my coat. We were finally able to see the black with my yellow ornaments! The water stopped above me while I rubbing my eyes of the water.

Suddenly, the mother grabbed me with a towel and raised me to get me out of them tub. I winced in pain because she was holding me right on a bruise. I groaned in answer to the accident, but she didn’t seem to realize.

“Sweetheart, can you go get me the bruise cream from the closet?” She asked Sweet while carefully drying me. I guessed that it was an accident that she grabbed me right on my injury. Still, the way she was drying me felt good, like Neige petting me.

My eyes dropped in sadness. The relaxation that came from the shower disappeared, unleashing the hundred thousand questions that were haunting me. In the end, however, the major question was wondering where she was.

As I was entering further and further in my well of sadness, the son came back with the cream and the mother started placing some on the obvious black… darker spot. “It may sting a little, don’t worry.” I was wondering why she said that, but then certain spots on my body started to itch. I wanted to stop the feeling, but I knew that using my claws for the task would bring more bad than good.

After a good five minute, she finally finished what she was doing. She closed the pot, which was now half empty due to all the injuries I had, and gave it back to her son. “There you go. By the end of the day, all of your bruises will be gone. They might still be sensitive, but your black coat won’t be ruined by them.” She smiled again.

We all left the bathroom and went back in the bedroom to look at Espeon’s situation. She seemed to be okay, but she had lost a lot of blood due to the big gash she received. Yet, the way she slept made me think of my trainer. Sleeping on her left side, her arm under her leg like an additional cushion, the rest of her body sprawled over the bed like if she knew that no one was there.

I sighed, returning to the pit of despair that I was trying to get out of. I knew that I was in love with her, but I never knew love could hurt as much as that. It didn’t help that my knowledge of love was about as big as my knowledge in… well, I think love is my worst subject.

This time, both the mother and the son saw that I was depressed. “Are you okay, Umbreon?” The kid asked. Instead of answering, I simply left the room and went toward the sofa in the living room. Both of them followed me.

“Was she someone you knew? Oh, by the way, my name’s Healing Heart and my son is called Sweet Leaf.” She asked. I stared at her after hearing their names. I knew that Tenebre wasn’t that original, meaning ‘shadow’ in french, but Healing Heart? Sweet Leaf? Those were nouns with an adjective, not a name!

I shook my head in answer. I wanted to know her, mainly because Cresselia told me that she is important, but she was only awake for about a minute when I was there. I don’t think that’s enough for an antisocial Pokemon to make a relationship with anybody.

“Then… why are you sad?” She asked. I wanted to tell them, but I knew that ‘Umbreon umbreon’ wouldn’t work as an explanation. I looked around and I spotted a notepad on the small table between the seats. I remembered some things that I saw Neige draw that might explain my situation.

I pointed the notepad and, luckily for me, they understood. Leaf took it and a pen, placing them in front of me on a fresh page. Using my mouth, I did my best to illustrate what I wanted. I drew two curved lines, making it look like what humans called a heart. I really thought that it was stupid. A real heart needed more details than two lines. It had a big tube coming from the top with four zones located inside and tons of muscles… at least, that’s what the book I saw showed.

Beside the ‘heart’, I wrote a question mark. I hoped that, in picture to word translation, it would mean ‘lost the only you love’. Healing looked at the drawing and looked confused. When I looked, I saw that my heart looked like a crude oval and my question mark like a circle over a dot. Still, she started deciphering it out loud.

“He looks obviously depressed and I can tell it’s from a bleeding heart, but he doesn’t know who that cat thing is…” I looked at her while she was trying to understand my bad drawing. One thing that kept popping out since I arrived here was the fact that those Ponytas kept referring to Espeon and I as ‘cats’. If I consider that a cat would be along the lines of Skitty, the kitten Pokemon, it makes next to no sense. I think that our family would actually have more resemblance to the Vulpix family than them.

After deep pondering, the mother gasped. “When you were kidnapped by Crazy, you lost your loved one!” How she managed to figure that out with whatever clue I left baffled me, but it was the closest I could get with the resources I had, so I nodded.

“Wow, I can’t believe I found it.” She shook her head, clearing her cheerfulness away to get back to serious. “Anyway, I can cut you a deal. Go get what we need from the zebras, along with a few things I’ll need for the near future, and we will look for her in the forest.” I looked down. I knew that saving that Espeon was important, but I couldn’t wait to search for Neige.

“I know you might want to look for your loved one, but a life is at stake here.” Let me add ‘Does the Ponytas from the new universe can read minds’ in my research to-do list. “ Still, a little wait before looking for her won’t hurt. You lured the goons away from the forest and she should be safe by now. I mean, she can’t be in a worst situation than your frie- acquaintance back there.” She was right on that one. I wouldn’t want Neige to suffer what Espeon went through.

“So, just follow Sweet to the bedroom and he’ll find you a suiting saddlebag for your size.” She turned to face her son. “Maybe the one you had in kindergarten. Might fit, more or less. Since you can’t speak, I will write you a list and a letter for Idube. I’m sure she’ll act kindly to you.” Like if had a silent agreement, we all went our separate ways, some less separate than others.

I follow Sweet Leaf to the bedroom. When I arrived, he was already digging through a closet for what I assumed was that ‘saddlebag’. After few seconds of rummaging, he grabbed two blue bag attached to a belt. Like the name suggested, it indeed looked like a saddle and it had bags attached to it. I seriously didn’t know what I was expecting.

“There you go, Umbreon. We only need to adjust it and you’ll be ready to roll.” He said while placing the bags over my body. To my surprise, even though my body had quite a different shape than those Ponyta, it fitted on me like a glove would on a trainer.

“Wow, I don’t even need to readjust it. It’s like if it was yours.” He patted me while I glanced at Espeon who was beside us. I suddenly thought of something that didn’t occur to me before. Maybe the reason why she was so important was because she knew where Neige was. She was awake earlier than me in the forest, she might have seen where Neige went. Maybe she even tried to speak with her and had a misunderstanding.

“I just have to warn you. Be careful.” He motioned me to follow him out of the room. “And try to stay away from Crazy’s workers. I don’t know what he’ll do to you if he catches you..”

We went down the stairs and met with his mother. She was standing beside the entrance with a small bag and a sheet of paper. “I have a bag with pots here. Just give them back to Idube when you get there. And here is the order and the letter. Just give all of these to the zebra and you’ll get what you need for your friend.”

I nodded, letting her place the pots inside my newly aquired bags. I felt the shift in weight as she tried to equalise it to prevent any accident. I suddenly realised that those bags weren’t made for creatures with swift and flexible backs, but more akin to strong and sturdy ones. By adding weight, they started to feel uncomfortable to wear.

“There you go, all packed and ready to run. So, to get to the tribe, just find the town exit where the gate is and run forward. Try to hide from the townponies and you should be there in about 30 minutes of running.” She explained while locking the bags with the button. She was about to open the door, but I stopped her. I was hearing something so faint I almost missed it.

“Just wait. I’m sure she’ll come out soon.” Oh sweet arceus. Them again? They won’t leave us, aren’t they? I looked at both Ponytas and they looked at me in confusion. I pointed at the wall beside the door and placed myself in a pre-pouncing position that only Brave does normally.

“Wait, they’re there?” Heart whispered. I nodded and backed off the door. “Okay… maybe you can leave using the window in the kitchen while I distract them. That’s an idea.” Before she even finished, her son and I were already running toward the kitchen.

“Wait, they might be on the other side here too!” Sweet warned me. I winked at him and grinned. He shrugged and opened the window, receiving a silent ‘yes’ from the other side. Using a complicated set of movement, I managed to tell him to close his eyes, which he did.

I got a running start and jumped through the window. When I left the house, I used flash, successfully blinding whoever was looking at me. And they said that this attack was only useful in caves. Because of my new role as running sun, I took a sprint toward the nearest alley, my goal being finding a quick and easy way to get on the rooftops.

Unluckily for me, my unstoppable force was quickly met with an unmovable object. In front of me was a house-high wall with no way to climb it. I wanted to go back the way I came and find a solution around it, but I knew that my flash gathered attention and might set me up for a trap.

I stared at the wall and suddenly thought of an idea. An idea so crazy there was no way it couldn’t work. Still, I was a bit reluctant at doing it for safety precaution, but it was my only solution. Well, only one I could find within the timespan I had. I sighed, hoping that my 10 second calculations were correct.

I summoned a shadow ball, but instead of shooting it, I let it float above the floor. Then, I got another running start and jumped on it. Right before colliding with the ethereal object, however, I used protect. When my body, 100% protected, hit the shadow ball, it compressed between the floor and I and exploded.

Like a spring, I was thrown into the air with the grace of a wailord on dry land. Even though the protect protected me from the impact on the ball, the sheer force of being flung was giving me quite the headache.

When I was flying, I suddenly realised a fact that I completely forgot when I did my ridiculous plan. My ‘gunpowder’ was a ball of darkness with a high density core. I was a projectile weighing about 60 pounds. It was obvious that, by the laws of physics, I would be thrown way too high for what I needed.

So I continued to fly for a good time. At first, I liked the feeling of being free of the gravitational pull of the planet. The feeling of weightlessness that came with my predicament. Then, I felt fear. I was meters high in the sky, rocketing at I-don’t-know-how-much miles per hour…

...and had no way to land.

Sure, I could use protect again and save me from the fall, but from past painful experiences, I knew that protect rarely worked again after using it once. I started searching inside my brain for a way to land without relying on luck.

I saw my body passing over the gate Heart told me to go. At least I knew I was going in the right direction, even though I might not survive my method of transportation. When I overshadowed the first trees in the forest, I started to feel the weight of the planet pull on me like it was supposed to.

I saw the trees approaching at increasing speed. I closed my eyes and curled into a ball, hoping that I wouldn’t turn into a umbrecrepe. Sadly, before I felt anything coming from the impact of my body on terra firma, my mind disconnected. I’m sure it’s to protect my own self from exterior pain. My last thought was about how much time I fainted in the last few days and if it was unhealthy.

Author's Note:

Wait, a second chapter in the same week? WHO AM I, WHAT DID I DO WITH BERRY? This question shall never be answered, muhahaha!

I would like to thank Nerd Bird for being a good friend... and forcing me to write.

Enjoy this while you can.

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