Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

249. “Build” a business.

-Ponyville, School of Friendship, Twilight-

“So Pique and Niche are doing well as students, they are great at making friend in spite of the language barrier and are particularly good at arts and crafts.” I told Fizzle and I was thinking about how to broach the topic of how to get my friends to not jump in on the ‘Breaching Tambelon’ adventure, Rainbow Dash was already a lost cause and would insist on going. “Surprisingly, and I can’t believe this what with the trauma of what happened at Mount Aris, Silver Stream has become friends with the two storm creatures. She said it was a little hard to get over it at first, but Pique and Niche made an incredible effort as friendship students to get to know her and try to make amends even if they were mostly under your leadership and didn’t really harm too many ponies or hippogriffs to begin with.”

“That’s good to hear, some good news for once around here! Being the Storm Queen hasn’t been too hard and Grubber has been keeping me up to date with the fleet and Storm Creatures homelands…” Fizzle trailed off, froze and then her eyes widened. “Twilight… what if I were to suggest we use Storm Creatures for the Tambelon Mission?”

“Well that would settle some of the issues with breaching into Tambelon, but they would have to volunteer for it.” Which from what I knew wouldn’t be a problem as Storm Creatures were quite capable and willing to do anything for Fizzle, because she actually cared about them as a ruler despite being a busy mare with helping the royal guard and having a family to worry about. With Jaded, anyone would be worried about that family. “So when will you be informing the friends and family that Pom has made contact with Tianhuo so that Smolder and Ocellus can talk to them?”

Fizzle knew what Tianhuo was going through and was being supportive and has been specifically stating that Tianhuo shouldn’t go evil like a unicorn. To be fair, horned beings in our world do have a tendency to let power go to their heads... which is where the horns usually are and the power that channels through to them might cause some psychosis issues. The thought refreshed the memories of me causing trouble during Winter Wrap Up and there’s the whole 'Want-it Need-it' spell incident.

Might need to start a research paper on the possibilities of things that cause ‘psychosis by magic’ with some help from Starlight and a doctor that isn’t a unicorn that actually thinks they already know everything there is to know. As noted, and easily verified, by an infamous earth pony stallion philosopher I’ve been reading about, unicorns tend to cause huge setbacks in the educational systems out of stupidity, vanity and hubris in the thought that other races can’t possibly be better than them in the intelligence department.

Sadly, I now completely understand why Celestia actively watched unicorns more than any of the other races.

“Tianhuo already told me that the devices are limited to ten minutes of total usage and take the most part of a day to charge, so we need to work out a schedule with Pom when she next contacts us.” If anyone could understand a given situation, it would be Fizzle as she was reporting on what we knew. “The world Pom’s group is currently in is… fairly dangerous. As in their second day there escalated like crazy. Thus far… Pom has actually done a good job of keeping her group alive. Physically her group has suffered various injuries from light scratches to an incredibly nasty things like a dangerous magical backlash coma, trauma based arrhythmia and spinal damage. The spinal damage was actually considered a lucky break. The reason being that if it had been anyone else that went through what Smolder did, they wouldn’t ever walk again… because they’d be outright dead. Pom has experienced the most physical, mental and possibly spiritual trauma that it’s not surprising she’s anxiety riddled or paranoid. Though anxiety is generally nothing new to a Lambkin, as you well know from all the research you’ve done in an effort to get changelings and lambkin to interact amiably, Pom has been noted as being a rare high functioning lambkin. The mental health of the group has been battered brutally, but they are holding strong and we still don’t know all the details of everything they’ve been put through.”

“Thanks for the report Fizzle, I’ll write up a list of questions for Tianhuo to ask Pom when she next calls.” I stated quietly, letting it sink in that the things this worlds Pom and her group went through were definitely taking a toll on them. “Now what to do about the issue of dragons wanting giant pillows? I’m already considering magical, self-repairing, memory foam.”

-Ransei Region, morning, Castle Aurora, Pom-

I yawned and lifted my head from the pillow to look at the weight on my chest and belly. I was hugging Shanty and Dolly to my chest and they were sleeping like angels. Smolder and Ocellus were cuddled together at my side also sleeping peacefully.

I noted Favela looking like a leafy bush sleeping in a nearby sunlight, didn’t know where Shine or Quetal were. It was fascinating that a Grass Type Pokémon looked exactly like an ordinary plants while they were sleeping.

Until my friends woke up, I wasn’t moving from my spot or disturbing them… I actually liked being used as a sleeping aid. It always makes me feel quite useful and loved.

Left alone to my thoughts, I eventually came up with an idea of what to do in this world. I would need to find a Pokémon that was somewhat exceptional at building things to get my idea off the ground.

For I wanted to start a small business in this world.

-Thirty minutes later-

“You’ll want to find a Bidoof if you’re looking to build something near the castle or wherever you feel like putting a building. Just don't bother anyone when you do start building.” King Evan didn’t even think twice about offering a space nearby for me to use as long as it didn’t interrupt any of the nearby Pokémon around here. “I would suggest Mankeys, but they are resource intensive and can get greedy even if they work fast. Bidoofs would much cheaper with your current funds and they always make sturdy structures… like this castle for instance. Their personalities are a bit… eh… you’ll see when you meet one.”

Speaking of funds, five thousand Poké was a lot and made for a good start up. Which reminded me that Evan was giving my group hospitality freely without question or even asking for repayment. I really didn’t want to rely on the kindness of strangers again, I was going for fully self-sufficient this time!

“Where would I find a Bidoof and what do they look like?” I started pulling money out from the sack that that Smeargle left me with.

“Brown, thickly curled facial and tail fur, red noses, teeth like a Ratatta and stout bodies.” Okay the description was limited, but I think I can work with it if one of our three Pokémon companions can identify one for us on sight. “I’d suggest looking along the waters to the north, but please be wary around the bridge to Ignis. We don’t exactly know what’s going on in Ignis, but we don’t want any trouble to destroy another bridge. If someone can throw Snorlax’s around so easily, then who knows what they might do next. Uhm… what’s with all the Poké?”

“This is to help aid you’re kingdom, for our room and board, for feeding us, for giving me advice and for just being a good person in general by not telling Geoff where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing today.” I placed at least one thousand Poké down for Evan.

“I-I can’t accept this!” Evan stated in an upset whine. “You’re friendship is more than enough for me!”

“You seriously need it for your kingdom Evan, just accept it with grace. If she wants to give it you, then let her. She clearly has reasons to do so and you’re running low on funds as it is just trying to mobilize that new unit of Pidgeys.” Moto stated as he stood off to the side of Evan with his arms crossed. “We’re going to need a lot of dosh to build up for retaking Fontaine if you’re willing to help me with that. I’m not going to force you to do so, until then I’m a part of Aurora plain and simple.”

The little fox looked upset with me, but I eventually gave him a loving cuddle and then eventually wore him down into accepting the money. I went to get my friends and our half unit of Pokémon adventurers before Geoff showed up to compliment me on my eyes or how nice my tail looks today.

-Two hours later, Northwest Aurora Kingdom, border lake-

We had taken a little time to look at the damage done to the bridge to Greenleaf on this side… the Snorlax was still there, still sleeping and it was, scarily enough, much bigger up close.

"I'm not fighting that if it wakes up." Dolly stated as we moved away from the destroyed bridge.

I could see some brown mountains and fiery scorched landscape to the northeast across the water where Ignis began, to the west I could see forests of Greenleaf. Having asked around, we were directed here by a very nice looking chinchilla Pokémon called a Minccino.

Minccino were, as noted by Quetal, Pokémon that were absolute clean freaks that actively competitive with Swablu for cleanest Pokémon to ever exist. Swablu being a blue bird with white cotton wings. If you were wondering where they were holding cleaning competitions, you’d find out quickly by just asking them as they were relatively eager to find places to spruce up. There was also a Pokémon called a Nickit that cleaned up after themselves, but that was usually to prevent someone finding them after they have stolen something.

Some Nickit’s actually liked to clean and were not thieves that also take part in the competitions, Shanty was interested in meeting one. I would rather avoid having a fox that will want to steal for me, I already had Shanty to do that if a need for stealth and theft comes up.

This prompted commentary from Dolly as we approached the lake bordering Ignis, Greenleaf and Aurora from the east side of the river that runs south. We started looking around for the Pokémon we needed to find.

“I’m sure my brother Dylan would have loved to have those Pokémon as friends, our friend Fergus would have loved palling around with that pickpocket fox too from the sounds of it.” Dolly shook her with a weak smile.

The Pokémon around here seemed wary of Ignis with the glances they kept sending to the north as we turned to move east along the lake and we didn’t see any brown Pokémon around so we moved on.

-Bridge to Ignis-

We weren’t going to cross it, but we finally found a Bidoof.

“What happened here?” I asked to the brown Pokémon that turned and stared at me blankly.

“That’s what I want to know, there’s no way a single Bidoof could have fought that many Pokémon.” What Quetal was talking about was a piles of unconscious bloodied Pokémon just on the cusp of walking onto the grass coming from the bridge to Ignis. “Some fire type units from Ignis might have been trying to stop another raid into Aurora, that or they were a part of a raid.”

Quetal was fairly cynical about things, but he wasn't wrong to be and I was cynical myself at times.

Notably it was a few units of Riolu and what looked like some lions that had fire color hair, all of them badly beaten and bloodied Pokémon seemed to be near the mildly roughed up Bidoof.

To put it bluntly, I was more than a little bit disturbed by the sight of multiple defeated units next to the buck toothed mouse with the world’s most bland and unexpressive look on his face.

“Build.” The Bidoof stated in a mindless sounding tone while tilting his head at us, sitting at the end of the bridge.

“Look lets ignore the piles of Pokémon for the moment and tell Evan of this when we get back to the castle. A battle obviously happened here and I don’t know who was fighting who or why, all I know is that we’ve finally found a bidoof that can build something for…” In a single blink and the Bidoof was standing front of me, I hadn’t even seen, heard or even felt him move at all. In fact nobody did as they were all still staring at the spot the Bidoof used to be.

“Where did it... WAH!” Shine freaked out and jumped behind Favela who was also somewhat freaked out.

“I rescind my previous statement that the Bidoof couldn’t have possibly done this.” Quetal’s eyes were narrowed on the Bidoof and he flexed his claws slightly, I was making a silent note here that Sneasels were a bit jumpy.

“Build?” Said the Bidoof with slightly more excitement than a corpse being consumed by buzzing buzzards.

“Um, I need someone to build something for me and I was told to look for a Bidoof. I need several things to be built actually…” Nobody would find this scene as unnerving as I currently do, because the clueless staring from the Bidoof the next two minutes of silence had me sweating a little bit.

“Build!” The Bidoof nodded, though his expression didn’t change much at all to match what sounded vaguely like excitement.

“Pom, I’m getting some seriously off vibes about this guy.” Ocellus was shivering as she looked at the mouse Pokémon smaller than any one of us.

“Well… I guess I better tell him what I need and where I need it…” Again I received a nod from the Bidoof.

“Build.” The Bidoof sat down and waited patiently, as I pulled a list, some drawings and a map with a specified location.

I placed them all before the Bidoof. It took him a few minutes to look at all them, then he gained starry eyes on his still blank and emotionless face.

“Build!” The Bidoof took the papers up in his mouth and then… there was a cloud of dust trailing off into the distance to the south a second later.

“Um… do you think he’s actually going to build what you want?” Smolder stated while glancing at the Pokémon at the end of the bridge.

“We’ll head back and found out. If Bidoof are any good at construction, then I’ll definitely pay him for his efforts.” Still, I felt a little disturbed after meeting a Pokémon like Bidoof.

Taking one curious glance at the scattered injured Pokémon on the bridge to Ignis, we started back for Aurora.

-Two more hours later-

“So… were you expecting this?” Smolder asked me with a raised brow as we finally made it back to being near Aurora Castle.

“BUILD!” The multiple Bidoofs stated at the same time towards us, they weren’t even shouting and it still quite raucous.

There were more than fifty of them and they were all in constructing the frame for the buildings, including the plumbing and a few were already in the middle of digging an irrigation ditch for the fruit trees I wanted to plant.

“Um… excuse me, but can you tell me why Pristi and I are here?” I turned away from staring at the rapid construction to see a Minccino and a Swablu sitting there watching the Bidoof build the things I wanted. The male Minccino was just watched the Bidoof running about. “The Bidoof kind of grabbed us for some reason and dragged us here.”

“AHHHHHH…. oof!” Now there were three Pokémon as a Bidoof blurred by, the new one was a yellow fox with big tufts of red fur coming out of their ears. “Can someone tell me what’s going on here and what’s up with all the crazy Bidoof?”

It took a moment, but once the fox noticed my presence, he just kept staring at me… then he started to blush and ignore everything else.

“Well… I think they gathered you because running a place like this is going to be exceedingly messy.” My words made the Minccino and Swablu perk up immediately.

“A true challenge of cleanliness?! I Picochi, welcome it!” The grey chinchilla stood up with his right paw in the air and his left on his hip. “Will I have to clean up after a Muk, please tell me I’ll have to clean up after one of them!”

“I’ll be the one cleaning up after a proverbial Muk first, for I am Pristi the maiden of good hygiene!” That was when the Swablu pressed her forehead against the mouse and they glared at each other in clear rivalry, before the bird turned back to me. "I don't even mind that they somehow plucked me out of the air for this!"

The more I hear about Muks the less I wanted to meet one on the principle of it, apparently there was one around here that one of Geoffs unit was dating or sleeping with. I seriously didn’t want to know more than I was learning, but I just knew it would happen eventually.

“I’ll do anything for you beautiful… I mean hi my name is flem… I mean flim… darn it!” The poor fox spat out some specks of flame from his mouth as he became increasingly tongue tied in my presence and seemed to be trying to talk in spite of himself. “Eriflamb, yes, that’s it… that’s my name. You can call me Erif you beautiful cuddly, fluffy, attractive wool covered goddess you! Er… did I just say all those compliments out loud like a Wooloo?”

We all nodded, he whimpered and curled up with his paws on his face.

“So embarrassing…” Whined the Pokémon that was obviously a fire type, if the constant flecks of flames dropping from his mouth and the heat coming off his ears were any indication. “Wait if those two are here to clean things, then what am I here for and why was I kidnapped from Ignis by a bunch of Bidoof? Not that I mind since you’re here my goddess!”

“Wait, you’re from Ignis?” I asked wondering how far Bidoof were willing to go to make my planned facilities a reality. They were already putting down the frame work and digging up the landscape, in fact they already looked halfway to properly putting up walls and a roof. “Do you have any information of what’s happening there in that territory? I mean in a general sense. Also Dolly, I’m so glad that you don’t act like this.”

“Why would I? The only time I’ve ever acted like that was with Hansel...” Dolly sighed and I could almost see the hearts floating around her head for a few seconds, well seconds before they burst at the realization that she was likely never getting with him or seeing him again. “Still, I made my choices and I’m happy with where I am. There are plenty of dogs out there… maybe even some handsome ones around here can catch my fancy.”

Yeah, no, I really didn’t need to magnetize more canine companions to me in a ‘familiar bond’. Also since most beings in this world seemed highly intelligent enough, I might not have to worry about familiar bonds at all and would have more to worry about them just following me everywhere I go even if they couldn’t bond to me like Dolly had.

“What’s going on in Ignis you ask my goddess? Well for one Lord Hideyoshi is having many problems with an Unfezant named Berserker Lu Bu and his Rapidash called Bloody Red Hare, at least they are keeping all the violent fighting away from the civilian population.” Erif seemed attracted to me like most canids are, but this seemed a bit more intense… like he had a major crush on first sight. “This has left the country kind of leaderless until those two can settle things about the leadership position, so Ignis’s military isn’t exactly focusing on all the issues piling up everywhere else due to the partial civil war going on… like those Riolu Raiders stealing from the civilians. People are kind of thankful they are hitting Aurora more than they are Ignis, but that doesn’t make what they are doing right!”

“Well if you choose to accept it, you’d help with running a bathhouse and rest stop guild… do you know how to cook?” I asked as I continued to watch the Bidoof build everything like crazy while throwing in their own flourishes and designs.

I noted that Aurora didn’t have a guild and well it couldn’t be too hard to functionally run one… right?

“I don’t know how to cook personally, but we can easily find a fire type that does!” Erif still seemed quite excited to have met me. “There are Fletchinder or a Talonflame that live around the border of Ignis and Aurora that are pretty good at food preparation. Also yes, I would like to join! I can help with heating the water in the bathhouse.”

“Build.” Huh? It was that one male Bidoof that we met. I looked at the plumbing schematics he was presenting to me and there were some things added to the illustrations I made up this morning.

There were a few changes to the design, it looked something like they wanted to make a variety of areas specific to Pokémon types. Like the sewage from bathroom usage would be directly piped to a specific area for certain Pokémon judging from the symbols, I think one of them meant grass types given the green coloration.

“Well... whatever you think will make all this work.” I said blandly. “If you can make a guild both beautiful and functional, then I’ll be happy with whatever you come up with as long as anyone, Pokémon or outsider, can enjoy coming here.”

“Build!” The Bidoof seemed happy with that given his body was vibrating violently as he scampered off.

“Pom, I think you might have created a monster… never mind… make that monsters. All the Bidoof seemed ecstatically and insanely happy all of the sudden.” Well Ocellus, I did kind of just give them a Carte Blanche to do whatever. “Emphasis on the insane part. Do we even have enough funds for all this?”

“You’d be surprise how cheaply Bidoof work, they just want to build things. The more complicated and challenging it is, the cheaper the price tag will be at the end of it all.” Pristi the Swablu stated while watching the Bidoof celebrate in ecstasy by gathering building materials and performing some kind of ritual around them. “So Aurora is finally getting a guild… it’ll be interesting to see how that turns out in this highly backwater place. So many muddy, dirty and unclean Pokémon will likely visit… the cleaning will be endless… a lifetime of positively killing grime… it’ll be glorious!”

Both the Swablu and the Minccino started drooling slightly at the thought of keeping this place clean.

“So…” I was going to ask them something, but they both respond at the same time.

“We’re hired!” They stated without any hint of hesitation and then started glaring at one another.

“If you are to be my enemy for life in the same place, then I Picochi welcome you to try and out clean me Pristi!” Paw and cotton wing were quickly shook. “So do you have anywhere we can stay while we wait for the Bidoof to finish?”

“We’re still going to be adventuring right?” Favela asked of me with searching eyes.

“Yes, but we’ll try to stay safe about it.” The reasons we got around in Aurora, Green Leaf and Fontaine so easily is because there were roads and long, wide and open spaces to travel through. Ignis to the north was more mountainous and treacherous to travel, so it would be slower going if we ever went there.

“Good enough answer for Favela!” Stated a smiling Favela.

“Why don’t you, Shanty and Dolly go play?” I said as I started pushing the three off in a specific direction of some flowery grasslands. “Stay within sight of Aurora Castle though. I think we’re done doing important things today until the Bidoof finish… which might take just the rest of the day at the rate they are going.”

All the Bidoof seemed ludicrously hyper about building things, they were even building a structure next to the guild that I didn’t even commission.

“We can be doing that easily!” Shanty stated as she threw a hoof around Favela and hugged the bush goat before setting off.

“Excuse me, but what’s that structure?” Smolder asked for me as second later.

A Bidoof sped up to us and gave us a paper with some schematics.

“Ah… it appears they were building a build and repair center… if I didn't know any better I think they might even have plans to build an entire town around the guild here.” As soon as the Ocellus said that, all the Bidoof in the area froze. They all slowly looked at her and then each other, then all their bodies began to vibrate like crazy. Seconds later, they went into a building frenzy. “I… probably shouldn’t have said that.”

“You think Ozzy? Hey Picochi, do you know where we can find a field of flowers to relax at? Pom is stressing out… and don’t you dare deny that you aren’t Pom!” Well Smolder had me figured out and she didn’t even need to ask Ocellus about my current feelings. “A nice, no danger, good smelling, flower heavy, frolicking spot.”

“There’s a place a bit south west of here, let us show you!” Picochi stated with good cheer.

"Ah the sweet smelling meadows, the Wooloo should all be elsewhere today making it a perfect spot to relax." Pristi followed up the statement by sending a blast of sparkles at Picochi and he fired a barrage of energy stars, that I now know to be the move Swift, back at her.

“I want to come to, I’ve never actually been in Aurora before… also, I don’t know how to get back to Ignis from here…” Erif's cheerful stare was making me uncomfortable.

I was almost wishing for Geoff’s presence.

“Oh so that’s where you are slender legs, your lovely appearance has already made my day!” Geoff stated pleasantly as he and his militia unit showed up. One of the Wooloo was actively writing down what Geoff just said and nodding to himself in clear appreciation of his leaders flirting ability. “I think I know the spot he’s talking about.”

Darn you Arceus, the key word there was ‘almost’!

Author's Note:

Pom starts a guild...

Chaos has ensuing before her group even arrived in this world.

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

The reason being that if it had been anyone else that went through what Smolder did, they wouldn’t ever walk again… because they’d be outright dead.

As I mentioned when it happened, Bentley actually survived it, although he spent the rest of the series in a wheelchair... and IIRC didn't become playable until after that happened.

“BUILD!”

Bidoof have access to the Moody ability; this was in fact the point where Smogon realized that they had to ban said ability, because even an unevolved Rattata-archetype was a threat with it.

an Unfezant named Berserker Lu Bu and his Rapidash called Bloody Red Hare

Do not pursue Lu Bu, Pom. Cu Chulainn will be bad enough.

it appears they were building a build and repair center

Did they somehow notice Dodo, who as I mentioned is essentially a Pokémon "egg" right now? (As of X/Y, they're canonically no more eggs than Dodo's is.) It occurs to me that they can probably hatch a Dalmamon too given that Porygon can breed with Ditto. SilphCo probably isn't happy about that one...

[Booster Spice]

Did that Bidoof just use the Defence Curl, Rollout combo on an entire squad of Riolu?

Welp, there might be a cleaning compatition, but at least Pom wont have to worry about a cleaning crazy butler Penguin. Unless somehow an Empoleon gets Nazaracked?

I wonder if Bibarrel trades manic energy, for an even larger power up? I mean, Four Hidden Machines/ Field Moves? theres a reason I gave one of mine the name Teacher, from Ian M Banks?

Another name is from a scifi series that seems to be rather obscure outside Germany.. that is Pucky the Mouse Beaver. Hmm.. No active combat Psychic moves, but it can learn Giga Impact. Which quite frankly is terrifying when used by Snorlax.

Ah.. there it is. Snorlax Z Move.

Pulverizing Pancake.?

Oh dear, spent minutes laughing so hard I had to recover.

[AllenVth]

So the Bidoof are basically like the Keckleons of Mystery Dungeon. Don't mess with them unless you have a death wish.

[Herald of Opera]

11359788
The Kecleons of Mystery Dungeon are also in this world, by the way.

[talontitanbane]

“What’s going on in Ignis you ask my goddess? Well for one Lord Hideyoshi is having many problems with an Unfezant named Berserker Lu Bu and his Rapidash called Bloody Red Hare, at least they are keeping all the violent fighting away from the civilian population.” Erif seemed attracted to me like most canids are, but this seemed a bit more intense… like he had a major crush on first sight. “This has left the country kind of leaderless until those two can settle things about the leadership position, so Ignis’s military isn’t exactly focusing on all the issues piling up everywhere else due to the partial civil war going on… like those Riolu Raiders stealing from the civilians. People are kind of thankful they are hitting Aurora more than they are Ignis, but that doesn’t make what they are doing right!”

A dynasty warriors reference? Always loved playing as Lu Bu.