Pokémon Journey - A Trainer & His Adventure in Equestria

by NinjaMare

Chapter 8: Affairs in the Castle

Shining Armor and a platoon of his Royal Guard were all standing on the side lines of the training halls sparing arena, where they were watching the newest live-in guest of the castle, Matt, training with his six strange creatures he calls Pokémon, wither by instructing them as they fight each other or has mock battles with one his Pokémon. It was actually interesting to see the group train along with each other, especially since the captain could see that Matt appears to have no form of magic, or whatever strange powers that the Pokémon have, yet he was proving to be quite agile as he bobs and weaves through some of the Pokémon’s attacks. And then get in a few blows with punches or kicks.

“I gotta say sir, these creatures are really interesting in watching them spar with their owner.” One of the stallion guards commented as he watched Matt currently spar with the small weasel creature, where they were launching punches at each other and blocking or judging each other’s attacks.

“Well he is certainly skilled, and his way of training his creatures is pretty good.” Shining Armor said as he actually flipped over the weasel creature and swept it off its feet with a low kick.

“I find him more interesting.” One of the mare guards said which caused Shining Armor, and the other guards to look at her with confused looks. “The way that he fights and is able to move around, it’s really weird yet intriguing to see a tall bipedal creature fight when I compare him to how a pony might fight.”

“Oh.” Shining and the other guards say in unison as they go back to watching the sparring, but it seemed that the sparring was over with for the time being as the ponies watched Matt started checking his Pokémon, presumably to ensure none of them got any bad injuries.

“So Matt do you always have these sparring sessions with your Pokémon?” Shining Armor asked as he and two members of his platoon trotted over to Matt.

“Most of the time, it’s a good means of exercise, and a way to keep are skills nice and sharp.” As Matt confirmed Shining’s question he took a look around at the six Pokémon, eyeing them curiously as a thought came to him.

“Say Matt, how do you feel about having one of your Pokémon sparring with me?”

“You wanna spar with one of them?” Matt asked clearly taken aback from the sudden request as Shining nodded his head.

The trainer then rubbed the top of his head, as he looked at his team. The captain also looked over to the group of Pokémon, and they all seemed excited about the idea, at least most of them the giant floating rock face one, and the wolf and weasel didn’t really show much emotion. At least as far as Shining could tell.

“Well if you’re up for it sure, but it will be a match with you against me and one of my Pokémon, I still need to make sure I’m in sync with my team when we have to fight together.”

“That’s fine by me, but I’ll also have one of my guards join me.” Shining said before turning back to the two guards that followed him. “So which of you would like to take part in this?”

“I volunteer sir!” the earth pony mare said as she strolled up to Shining’s side. Matt then walked over to the seahorse looking Pokémon and leaned down a bit before speaking.

“What do you say Kingdra, up for an actual battle?” the Pokémon excitedly nodded while making a unusual ‘doo’ sound as it hopped in place on its curved tail a few times, before proudly standing beside Matt.

“Alright. The match will be a simple fight, the first team to be knocked out of the ring or admits defeat is the looser. And Matt—” Shining said as he looked up to the human. “You can use one of the training swords we have.”

“That’s fine.” Matt said before reaching into the sizable satchel, or pouch, which was strapped to his waist. Shining then watched as Matt pulled out a small black cylinder from the satchel, which then had two shafts extend from both ends, turning it into a staff that was just a little more than half his overall size.

“I got this if I ever need to defend myself.”

Shining smiled up at Matt, mostly out of excitement that this human was indeed prepared for a fight. the group then went to their separate ends of the sparring arena, while the rest of the guards who were mostly just either partially listening to their conversation, or training on their own took up seats or stood around the arena. While the rest of Matt’s team strolled off to one side the arena. Once everyone was in place, and Shining’s partner grabbing a practice sword, the Captain had one of his guards take the center of the arena acting as referee, and after the guard took his place and confirmed that both parties were ready for their own little sparring match he loudly proclaimed begin!

The moment that the guard said that, and promptly flew off to the side, Shining Armor and his partner charged towards Matt and his Pokémon. Who actually done the same! However after running over a few feet, Matt leapt forward and landed on his hands where he expertly balanced himself, but then both ponies watched as Matt’s Pokémon hopped on top of Matt’s feet after making a solid bound towards him. Then to the surprise of not just Shining and his partner, but to all of the ponies in the hall, Matt coiled his legs before thrusting them up where the Pokémon then bounced off and soared ten feet into the air! The whole movement and maneuvers both trainer and Pokémon made from Shining’s point of view, was quick and precise like they pulled this whole thing off before.

“Kingdra use Icy Wind!” Matt’s said loudly snapping Shining out of his little marveled state, before looking up and seeing Kingdra blew out a spiraling current of frigid cold air, which actually started frost over Shining and his partner over! Acting quickly Shining conjured up a barrier to block the attack.

“Hydro Pump!” Again Shining heard Matt call out, and then he saw as Kingdra started to fall back down to the ground that it stopped blowing the icy wind, and immediately fired a powerful stream of water that actually broke through Shining’s shield, as water splashed all over the place.

When his shield was broke Shining Armor was actually surprised by this, as none of his unicorn guards could break it with any magical attacks of their own during training. But that thought was swiftly brushed aside when he saw Matt was only a few feet from him, and his staff was at the ready to be swung at him. yet the captain was spared getting hit in the face when his partner leapt in front of him, and used her own practice sword to block the attack. Snapping out of his stupor Shining goes in to launch his own attack, but he was stopped when he saw Kingdra leap over Matt and again seemed ready to launch another attack. Quickly acting the captain brought up a shield in front of his partner to block the attack, yet instead of water, or frigid cold air, Shining and his partner were instead meet by a stream of smoke being blown at them.

As the arena started to fill with smoke, Shining and his partner started to cough as their eyes watered a bit, but during that time the captain was soundly tackled from the side and felt himself being forcibly pinned to the ground. but the captain wasn’t going to go down easily, so using all the strength he had he managed to buck whoever tackled him off, and once he was freed Shining spun around and fired a magical blast. Yet whatever tackled him rolled out of the way, and hid in the smoke. Before Shining Armor could look for which of the two tackled him, or even attempt to disperse the smoke around him, something else came rushing it out of the smoke and tackling him. this time though it was his partner.

“Sorry sir, the seahorse got me good in the side.” The mare said as she got off the captain who also got up to his hooves.

“No problem. But I think we may have underestimated how good Matt and his team are.” Shining said as used a spell to get rid of the smoke, but the moment he did so Shining Armor and his partner were immediately face to face with Matt, who the mare was just able to start blocking his staff swings. Shining Armor fired a few magical blast’s, but the human was able to dodge two of the shots, but Kingdra fired a blast of water to cancel out the last one, and started to try and headbutt, tail smack, or body slam into the stallion.

“I gotta say human your pretty good.” The mare said as she continued to block, parry, and counter attack against the taller trainer. She tried to use her smaller stature to surprise him by ducking into areas where he would be blind to, but Matt always kept her in his sights.

“After the many years of self-defense, and all the years of traveling I’ve done I should be.”

Matt responded as he went for a swift staff swing at the mare, who blocked the attack with the sword, but left herself exposed for a low leg sweep, knocking the mare onto her side which Matt then pinned her to the ground. With the mare disarmed and pinned, Shining Armor was left on his own in fighting against Kingdra. And both pony and Pokémon seemed to be evenly matched. Shining Armor was never the best when it came to an offensive assault, which is why he solely focused on his exceptional skills in defensive magic, yet this Pokémon was testing his limits with its barrage of water and icy gusts of wind. Soon enough though Shining found an opening to give him a direct shot, and when Kingdra landed after making another leap Shining struck, firing two magical blasts at the Pokémon in its body!

“Yes!” Shining said triumphantly as Kingdra was knocked back a few feet, but stopped as it used its tail to brace itself.

“If you want to knock down Kingdra Shining Armor, you’re going to have to put more power into it. Like this! Kingdra use Twister!”

Kingdra began sucking in a large amount of air before exhaling and letting out what looked like a pale violet tornado, which raced across the short gap between the two of them, and slammed right into Shining Armor. The captain wasn’t able to bring up a fully deployed shield, or barrier spell, and was knocked clear out of the ring and slamming against the wall! A collection of guards rushed over to their captain, while both Kingdra, Matt, and the rest of the trainers team looked worried. Matt especially as he shrunk his quarter staff.

“Oh crap that might’ve been overkill!” Matt said before he quickly got off the guard mare, and rushed over to Shining Armor, with said guard mare and Kingdra following beside him.

“Shining are you alright?” the captain groaned as he sat up and rubbed his back before looking up to Matt.

“Yeah I’m fine, my armor took most of the impact against the wall, but wow that was one powerful attack. I literally got the wind knocked of me, and my back still felt a lot of pain.”

“I’m glad that you’re not overly hurt, but we should probably get you checked up just in case.”

“I agree sir.” A unicorn stallion said as he and the earth pony mare helps Shining up onto his hooves. “We’ll help you get to the medical wing to have you checked out.”

Shining didn’t protest as his back did really hurt, and going to see one of the medical pony would be best, especially since he still needs to help Cadence in getting the preparations for the wedding on the way. So Shining Armor hobbled his way out of the training hall, while Matt checked up Kingdra and how it felt.

“So sir, what did you think about our little sparing match with Matt and his Pokémon?” the stallion asked the captain as they trotted down the hall.

“Well for one thing their certainly not amateurs when it comes to fighting.” Shining said before elaborating more to his two guards.

“That first maneuverer they pulled would take a lot of practice to pull off, without tripping over themselves. Not only that butt they were well-coordinated in their attacks, especially when the smoke was deployed, they were able to take full advantage of the situation.”

“Agreed.” The mare said as the trio rounded a corner. “Matt was very good in using that extendable staff of his, and the way he pinned me to the ground was effective. I couldn’t even budge out of his grip.”

“Guess this human and his Pokémon are very capable fighters despite their appearances.” The stallion guard said as a curious expression came over his face.

“That’s true.” The mare said as the group made it to the medical wing of the castle, and trotted to one of the beds lining against the walls.

‘I’m sort of tempted to ask Matt if I could take part in his training sessions, to see what else his Pokémon are really capable of.’ The mare mentally stated as Shining Armor hopped on one of the beds, and the stallion guard left to fetch one of the doctors from the adjacent office.

~~~~~

Princess Cadence was trotting through the halls of the castle with a few maids trotting beside her, all of whom were taking down notes for the princess of love regarding preparations for the wedding, while another maid was showing various pamphlets and magazine pages showing different types of wedding dresses. The princess of love has been going about in checking preparations, deciding what could be applied to the wedding, and many other factors that still need to be overseen and finalized. Now these preparations would go a bit smoother if Shining Armor was here to help, but Cadence knows that he still has his duties as captain of the royal guard to do, he also has to make sure that security would be tighter since their wedding involves not only herself, but her aunts as well. And while Equestria is a peaceful place, Celestia has told Cadence to be weary, as she had a premonition that something would come to Canterlot on the day of the wedding, and cause some kind of conflict.

“Princess Cadence!” the pink alicorn looked down a nearby hall and spotted a pegasus maid speeding towards her with a very worried look. “We have a problem!”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Cadence asked the frantic mare who skid to a stop in mid-air before she collided with the princess.

“It’s the cook that was hired to take care of the feast for the wedding, he QUITE!” the mare said frantically which did cause not just Cadence, but the two other maids as well.

“What?!” Cadence exclaimed. “Why did he quite?”

“He said something about the rest of the kitchen staff not following his instructions, and the staff saying he was being overbearing and to controlling. It was just an absolute mess.”

“Floral, Gossamer, we’ll continue our surveys later but now I need to fix this.”

Both maids nodded and proceeded to trot off, while Cadence follows the pegasus towards the kitchen. Hopefully, she can catch the head chef and convince him to stay, otherwise they would have to find somepony new to take over, and on such short notice that was going to be incredibly difficult. But as the princess was following the pegasus she noticed that something was off, the kitchens were near the center of the castle so that they can distribute food to any part when food ordered, but Cadence noticed that she and the maid were heading towards the southern most end of the castle.

“Wait a minute, we’re going the wrong way.” Cadence said as she stopped.

“The Kitchen is in that direction.” Cadence pointed to a nearby hallway, but the pegasus just stopped in flight before turning to face the alicorn.

“Forgive me princes, but I was trying to make sure that we were well enough away from prying eyes.” The maid said while her voice started to carry a slight reverberating effect to it, and her eyes turned green.

“What do you mean?” Cadence asked suspiciously.

“What I mean is I was trying to make sure no pony sees what I have in store for you.”

Before the princess could figure out what the mare means, the pegasus body erupted in green fire which startled the alicorn yet just as she was about to scream, something flew out of the mass of fire. something sticky and slimy splattered all over Cadence’s face, covering her mouth and the entire right side of her face, leaving only the left side of her face unspoiled. So with her remaining eye Cadence watched as the maid before her transformed into a large black figure, the appearance was similar to that of an alicorn, but all of the bodily features were insectoid like. but that mattered little to the princess of love, as Cadence was about to make a run for it. however her assaulter again fired the same green substance at her, sticking her hooves to the ground preventing the pink alicorn from running or flying away! Then in a last ditch effort Cadence was about to cast a teleportation spell, but again, she was plastered with more of the green slime, this time around her horn.

“Sorry princess, but for my plans to work, I’ll have to restrain you.” the new figure said in her reverberating voice as Cadence watched her get closer to her, while her jagged horn glowed with green magic.

“Oh but don’t worry I’m not going to kill you, but I can’t have you anywhere in the castle as somepony might stumble upon you eventually.” Then Cadence saw that a ring of green fire circled around her, and she started to sink into the floor!

“Which is why I will be sending you someplace that no pony will ever think to look!” Then in a final flourish of green fire, Cadence was sucked completely into the ground, and was now in pitch darkness.

~~~~~

Queen Chrysalis watched as the princess of love was swallowed up by her teleportation spell, sending her to the deepest cavern of the crystals caves that she scouted out before infiltrating the castle. Once the princess was fully gone, Chrysalis quickly shifted to take on the alicorns form, and once she has dawned Cadences appearance she instantly went out to look for the stallion she was meant to marry. If her plan was going to be executed to its maximum effectiveness, she’s going to need to start working her magical hooks into that stallion, so that not only will she be able to passively drain love off of him. but also use him as a pawn to clear out any suspicions that she might stir up, and if her intel was correct and preparations for the wedding are still underway, then she could also use the chaos of the pre-wedding set up as cover up for her activities as well.

‘But where could this captain be right now?’ Chrysalis internally questioned as she wandered around the halls. But as she traversed through the halls something caught her attention that disrupted her train of thought.

Walking side by side with a pair of guards was something that her scout didn’t inform her of. The thing walking side by side with the guards was a tall bipedal creature, and it was covered in some very unusual clothes. Though the fact that it was wearing a large amount of clothes in the first place was rather strange, as nothing in Equestria wears that much clothes. Yet the queen was intrigued about this creature, but that sense of curiosity was swiftly replaced by worry. She has no idea what this creature is, or why its in the castle, it could possibly ruin her plans!

“Princess Cadence, can you hear me?” the queen was snapped out of her train of thought when a voice spoke loudly towards her, and when she looked to the one that spoke she saw the creature standing before her.

“Are you alright you look really flustered?” the creature asked in a masculine voice.

“Oh ugh yes, yes I’m perfectly fine I was just…wandering how preparations for the wedding were going.” Chrysalis quickly responded.

“Matt she’s royalty!” one of the guards said, which the queen noticed like something terrible was happening. “You can’t talk to her so casually.”

“Why not? She and Shining Armor said I could.” The queen perked up when the creature, who apparently was named Matt, mentioned Shining Armor.

“Speaking of my beloved, do you know where he is at the moment?” the pegasus stallion off to the bipeds left spoke up as he straighten up.

“He was taken to the infirmary, to ensure that he didn’t hurt himself during a sparring match you highness.”

“Thank you gentlecolt. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Taking her leave Chrysalis quickly trotted past the trio, who started to talk amongst themselves again. But as she trots down the hall in search of the infirmary, the changeling queen looked behind her and watched as the biped and his two guard entourage rounded a corner.

“This could prove to be a problem.” Chrysalis muttered quietly under her breath as she went back to trotting down the hall. “I have no information about this creature, this Matt, it could disrupt everything.” The queens eyes shimmered green for the briefest of moments as a small frown graced her muzzle.

“It appears I’ll have to add a new object to my plan to ensure everything runs smoothly.”

Comments

[ArcticAce01]

Amazing chapter! Man Chryslias now is disguise as cadence. This isn’t good

And I like the match with Matt and kingdra against shining and the other guard

[AllenVth]

Shining experienced first hand how hard Kingdra hits.

[horsepoweryt]

Any news of the next chapter?