I'm on a Master Quest

by Purple Pony

Chapter 3-(Un)Settling In

I didn’t get much sleep. The train jostled around all night, leaving me with an upset stomach. Apparently, I get motion sickness. Who knew.

Anyways, we arrived in the Crystal Empire at about nine o’clock. Thankfully, there was breakfast on the train, otherwise, I would have probably would have been cranky all day. We stepped off of the train onto the station, and mom looks around as if she is looking for somepony. Turns out, she is.

For once, my team is in their pokeballs, not wanting to crowd the station. A good call. Ponies are getting off and on the train with some sort of urgency. However, they give me and Sky a wide berth. For a second, I consider screeching and panicking the crowd, but Umbreon says, Do we really want to make a scene and get arrested before even getting to the academy?

Umbreon, you are great, you really are, but you are also such a downer.

“Heart! There you are, young lady!!”

Apparently, mom was looking for somepony. The pony she called to was taller than mom, had a huge horn on her head, and was wearing a jacket, despite it being quite warm here inside the weather shield (Of course, Hollow Shades is the coldest city in Equestria, so it’s warm to me). She was pink, with a purple mane and blue highlights. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my hoof on why she was so.

“At least you remembered your jacket.” Mom said to the pony she had called Heart.

“Yes, I did. You can stop worrying about me, Nana. I’m twenty, not five.” “Heart” said back. So mom was a babysitter. And lived in the Crystal Empire. I didn’t know she lived in the Empire before I was born. But my long term memory is spotty at best, so who knows what I’ve forgotten.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t worry about you. After all, you’re rather important.” So, mom babysat this mare when she was a filly, and her family was some sort of nobility. Cool.

“I can take care of myself, Nana. Oh! Who is this little colt?” “Heart” asked.

“This is my son, Cloud Song. Ever the rebellious one. Just got his license yesterday, and is already trying to get rid of me.” Ouch. Really, Mom? I would have been just fine without you, I wasn’t trying to get rid of you.

“Seems like your off-hours activities resulted in some-“

“FLURRY!!!!” Mom yelled at the other mare.

To my credit, I didn’t pass out right there at the station. My world just did a 360 kick flip (insert skateboard slang here). Apparently, Sky did some questionable things in her down time, and…NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. NOT GOING THERE. NOT. GONNA. GO. THERE. GET THE BRAIN BLEACH.

After that, I realized something else mom had said. This pony named “Heart” was also called “Flurry.” No Way. No logical Way. That couldn’t mean…

Warning. Cloud.Song.exe has suffered from worldview change. Please wait five minutes for proper reboot.

---

Five minutes later…

Me, Mom, and the other mare are sitting at a café, with some coffee for the mares, and hot cocoa for me. They are chatting with each other like old friends (which, I guess they are) and laughing frequently. After waiting for a break in the conversation (which, with mares, was quite a while), I decided to ask my mom the first of many questions I would ask that day.

“You lived in the Empire before I was born?”

Mom looks at me and sighs, “Yes, I did. I told you once before, didn’t I?” Spotty memory, this is getting old.

“What did you do?”

“I was part-time guard, part-time babysitter, in case you can’t tell.”

“They were the same job, Nana.” The mare interrupted, “You were guarding/babysitting me.”

“Oh yeah, and who is she?” I ask mom, pointing a hoof at the mare.

Mom quickly glares at said mare, before sighing and asking the mare to introduce herself.

“Okay. My full name is Flurry Cadenza-Heart, but you can call me Heart. Your mom does. Your mother was my personal guard when I was a child. She was also the babysitter when my Mom, my Dad, and Aunt Twilight were busy.” She continued to say more, but at this point, I was looking at mom with a gaze that screamed HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME YOU KNEW MY IDOL????????

“Any other questions, Cloud?” Heart said.

“Yes. What did my mom do in her off time?”

“She would go drinking, get stupid drunk, and never remember what happened after. Even today, she can’t hold her liquor to save her life.” Heart said, over my mother who was motioning to stop talking. That would explain why there was never any beer in the house. And I could piece the rest together about my birth. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NO-

Umbreon popped out of his pokeball and slapped me across the face. Get it together, Cloud. You are a ten year old, and if you want your mom to trust you being alone, you need to stop seizing up every time you hear something new.

“Fine! Fine! Jeez, Umbreon, stop yelling at me!” At this, mom and Flurry Heart burst out laughing, with mom doing so while still glaring at Flurry. After about two minutes of that, they calmed down, and Heart asked, “You can talk to Pokemon?”

“Yup. Always have. Always will.”

“I have a feeling that you will be incredibly helpful in class these next few months.” Flurry says.

“Speaking of, we need to get him settled in his dorm. I’ll see you around, Flurry.” Mom said.

“Bye Nana. See you in class, Cloud.”

We parted ways, and I was planning on just walking to the campus in silence, but a question popped up in my mind. “Dorm?”

“Yes, dorm. I can’t afford to buy a house here, and you probably should stay on campus.”

Frick. Social skills, my one weakness. There weren’t many other children my age, and fewer still weren’t scared of me. The ones that weren’t didn’t stay long. As a result, my social life was with the guard.

But, nothing I could do but grin and bear it. Entering the campus (which is about the size of Ponyville), we made a beeline for the dorms. It was a three-story building that looked like an apartment building. I was very drab, and as a whole didn’t seem like a place I would like.

Inside, however, is a different story. The ground floor had an air-hockey table, vending machine, foosball table, and other items designed to distract kids from studying. After going up to the desk and getting my room keys, we went up to the third floor (for flying species) and to room number 351.

It was a mare. I knew right away. The pink gave it away. Laying on her bed, reading a magazine, was a Pegasus filly that looked no older than I do. She had a light blue coat that reflected the sun right in my eyes (ouch) and a yellow mane that made her look like she had been given a drop of sunlight in her mane. She turned around as the door opened, and when she saw me and my mother, she did what anypony else would in that situation.

She proceeded to bounce out of bed, say hi, and shake my hoof so hard it nearly fell off.

I would have been shocked she wasn’t screaming, but today had been all kinds of weird, so I didn’t question it.

“Hello there! I’m Sunshine Drop! I heard I would be getting a thestral roommate, so I decided to do some research so I wouldn’t freak out when you arrived! Come on in! Oh, what’s your name?!”

Fortunately, she didn’t give me a chance to run away, as I would have bolted then and there. She grabbed my hoof and dragged me into the room. I was still comprehending how she could have so much energy, so my mom bailed me out.

“This is Cloud Song, and I’m his mother, Sky Song. We’re from Hollow Shades.”

“The thestral town? COOL! I wanna go there after we get done at school here, and now I have a place to stay!” Sweet Luna, did this mare never stop talking? And staying at my house? What? Hopefully she isn’t like this all the time, or I will be banging my head against the wall after about day 3.

Mom grabbed my bags and tossed them in with me, and said “Go ahead and unpack. I’ve got an appointment to keep with Heart’s parents. And before you ask, no, you can’t come, it is very formal and otherwise the exact opposite of you. Be back in a few hours, bye.” And she’s gone. As is my only hope of escape.

I look in my bags and get out some things that I can take care of right away. Starlight Glimmer and Flurry Heart posters go on the wall (“I have those posters, too!” Sunshine says), toothbrush goes in the bathroom (“Don’t confuse it with mine!”), pillow on the bed (“Looks comfy!”), and…that’s it.

“How do you not have anything else?” Sunshine asks.

“I’ve never had much. My free time was spent with the guard back home. Didn’t need toys when you could punch training dummies in the face.”

“This crisis is unacceptable, and there is only one solution.” For once, she didn’t have an exclamation point on the end of the sentence. A rare occurrence, if current trends are to be believed.

“And the solution is…?”

“SHOPPING SPREE!!!!!” she yells in my face.

“We don’t have time to go sho-hrrk!” I start to say, but she grabs me around the throat and jumps out the window.

Author's Note:

And BOOM, Sunshine Drops. I felt having another pony would help with the story, instead of just Cloud going on an adventure by himself. That would have been boring.

Yeah, I know, not a lot of Pokemon, but this is FimFiction, so ponies are kinda at the forefront.

Also, not all the chapters are this long. I swear.

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